Net Neutrality 2017, an open letter

An open letter about Net Neutrality to my representatives and anyone interested in a sample letter for the FCC:

Dear Representatives,

I am extremely dismayed that the FCC is ignoring hundreds of thousands of people in making their vote to remove Title II status from ISPs. By doing so, they are moving toward overturning the progress made of the last few years to maintain Net Neutrality.

There is hard empirical evidence that it has not hurt competition or investment as the FCC chairman has claimed. The CEO of Verizon has stated publicly that the status has not affected their investment in infrastructure at all since it was put into place. Competition has been widespread and profits increased since the regulations were put in place.

There is ample evidence that, if the consumer protections are removed from the FCC’s purview (by removing Title II regulations), the large ISPs will implement anti-competitive practices that will hurt competition by newer or smaller ISPs. This will hurt competition and progress us toward a pay-to-play internet. In that future, the massive ISPs that control access to the internet will be able to pick the winners and losers online, in industries far removed from the ISP market. Consumers have very little choice in their Internet Service Provider, in many cases only having 1 choice for broadband internet.

If there is concern about companies like Google or Facebook operating outside of these regulations, those concerns should be addressed separately, not by throwing the entire system out, but figuring out what should be done, if anything, to address concerns that those kinds of companies are taking advantage of the regulations placed on the larger ISPs.

Please consider these words carefully, I would really enjoy a personal note from each of my representatives stating their position on this issue. This is as close as I have to a make it or break it rule – I will not support, or vote for, representatives that do not value a free and open internet, and Net Neutrality along with classifying large ISPs under Title II regulations is currently the best way to ensure that it remains that way. I am more than willing to discuss this further with any of you if you are interesting in learning more from one of your constituents.

Thank you for your consideration,
Mike Behnke

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Here’s a video from John Oliver:

PS. For anyone reading this, feel free to use the above language or adjust it to suit your situation to send a message to the FCC and to your representatives.

PPS. Additional reading: https://www.battleforthenet.com/