Hey
there,
Exciting
news! The
Internet Slowdown net
neutrality protest planned for September 10th is really taking off. This
morning, a dozen of the world’s largest websites announced that they’re joining
in a big way. Sites you know and love like Etsy, Kickstarter, Wordpress, Vimeo,
Mozilla, Namecheap, Foursquare, imgur, and reddit.
Will
you join too?
Oh,
but that’s not all that happened this morning. Just a few hours ago I got a
phone call from a number in Washington, DC. The person on the other end tried to
ask some questions without identifying themselves, but when I asked outright
they told me they were from NCTA -- yep,
as in the National Cable Television Association, aka Comcast’s lobbying
army.
I
couldn’t hold back a chuckle when they told me who they were, but I continued to
be polite. They wanted to know when we would be announcing the names of the
companies participating in the September 10th net neutrality protest. I
suggested they take a look at the front page of The
Guardian, or at this op-ed by the CEO of Etsy in
Wired,
and mentioned they may want to check out this TIME
Magazine article.
Then I hung up.
After
the call, I couldn’t stop smiling. I’ve been organizing for many years and one
thing I’ve learned is that powerful enemies only start contacting you when
they’re scared. If they don’t think you’re being effective, they ignore
you.
Friends,
we are giving some of the most powerful interests in the world a run for their
money. And they have tons of money. We’ve got Comcast & company shaken up
and scared. This is our chance to to drive the message home and win this once
and for all.
All
the tools you need for the battle are here:https://battleforthenet.
If
you’ve got a website, blog, or Tumblr run the “slowdown” widget on your site to
symbolically show your users a “loading” message and help people understand what
the Web could be like without net neutrality. If you don’t have a site, change
your profile pic to the “loading” symbol, so that the entire Internet is alive
with protest on September 10th, and forward this email to everyone you know to
spread the word.
The
truth is, unlike Comcast and their cronies, we have nothing to hide. A report
from the Sunlight Foundation yesterday showed
that
99% of comments the FCC has received are in support of net neutrality. The
public agrees, and hell hath no fury like the Internet scorned. As I write this
email, I’m feeling more hopeful about our chances of victory in the battle for
net neutrality than I have since we started this fight.
We
can win this, and when we do, it’s a victory we can put in the history
books.
For
the Internet,
-Evan
Greer at Fight for the Future
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