The Free Internet Needs 2 Minutes of Your Help Right Now

Net neutrality in the United States is under attack again. The FCC is planning to vote on whether to repeal net neutrality policies on Thursday, December 14. Before that day comes, it’s critical to let your representatives know that you want to keep the internet free and open as it is now.

What Is Net Neutrality?

Net neutrality is the principle that all traffic on the internet should be treated equally. With net neutrality in place, internet service providers (ISPs) like Comcast and Verizon cannot give special treatment to certain kinds of traffic (e.g. slower speeds for Netflix or YouTube streams while faster speeds for their own streaming services).

Net neutrality allows the internet to be a level playing field. You can read our full explanation of net neutrality for more info.

Without net neutrality, ISPs would be free to create “package deals” or “slow lanes” for sites that didn’t pay for the privilege of being fast. For instance, your basic Comcast internet plan could include access to MSNBC’s website (which Comcast owns), but charge you $5/month extra to visit any other news site.

You’ll see promoted tweets and videos from ISPs claiming that they support net neutrality. Do not believe them! They are liars, and their actions show it.

How You Can Effortlessly Fight for Net Neutrality

Since the FCC, and not the public, is voting on this repeal, you can’t do anything directly.

However, you can still make your voice heard by contacting your members of Congress. Using the EFF’s simple tool, you just need to enter your address and it will generate a letter to your representatives for you. You can customize the letter if you like, but the standard one works too.

After you enter your address, you’ll need to provide your name, email address, salutation, and county in some cases. You may also need to specify a topic for the correspondence — telecommunications or something like it is your best bet.

Hopefully our representatives hear the overwhelming support in favor of net neutrality and take action to prevent it being repealed. If not, get ready for this:

How have you fought in favor of net neutrality? Share your thoughts in the comments!

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