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Dozens of Groups, Companies Praise President's Net Neutrality Statement, Urge FCC Action(Targeted News Service Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) WASHINGTON, Aug. 8 -- The FreePress issued the following news release: Today dozens of advocacy organizations and companies, released a letter to President Barack Obama, in response to his recent vocal support for fair and meaningful net neutrality rules. Below find the full text of the letter. Mr. President: Earlier this week, you made a strong statement in support of net neutrality by saying: "One of the issues around net neutrality is whether you are creating different rates or charges for different content providers. That's the big controversy here. So you have big, wealthy media companies who might be willing to pay more and also charge more for spectrum, more bandwidth on the Internet so they can stream movies faster. I personally, the position of my administration, as well as a lot of the companies here, is that you don't want to start getting a differentiation in how accessible the Internet is to different users. You want to leave it open so the next Google and the next Facebook can succeed." We want to thank you for making your support for net neutrality clear and we are counting on you to take action to ensure equality on the Internet. A level playing field has been vital for innovation, opportunity and freedom of expression, and we agree that the next big thing will not succeed without it. We need to avoid a future with Internet slow lanes for everybody except for a few large corporations who can pay for faster service. Like you, we believe in preserving an open Internet, where Internet service providers treat data equally, regardless of who is creating it and who is receiving it. Your vision of net neutrality is fundamentally incompatible with FCC's plan, which would explicitly allow for paid prioritization. The only way for the FCC to truly protect an open Internet is by using its clear Title II authority. Over the next few months, we need your continued and vocal support for fair and meaningful net neutrality rules. Our organizations will continue to pressure the FCC to put forth solidly based rules, and will continue to encourage you and other elected officials to join us in doing so. Thank you again for standing up for the open Internet so that small businesses and people everywhere have a fair shot. Signed, ACLU, Center for Media Justice, ColorOfChange, Common Cause, Consumers Union, Credo, Daily Kos, Demand Progress, Democracy for America, EFF, Engine, Etsy, EveryLibrary, Fandor, Fight for the Future, Free Press, Greenpeace, Kickstarter, Louder, Media Action Grassroots Network, Media Alliance, Media Mobilizing Project, MoveOn.org, Mozilla, National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture , National Hispanic Media Coalition, OpenMedia International, Open Technology Institute, Presente, Progressives United , Public Knowledge, Reddit, SumOfUs, The Student Net Alliance, Thought Works, Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press, Women's Media Center TNS 24KuanRap-140809 30FurigayJof-4824443 30FurigayJof (c) 2014 Targeted News Service |