74 Democrats Sold Out to AT&T, Verizon, & Comcast

Infuriatingly, they signed an industry-backed letter telling the  FCC to abandon efforts to protect Internet users by prohibiting  big companies from blocking Internet traffic. Not only is this letter an attack on net neutrality, but by signing  the industry letter, these Democratic members of Congress  are attempting to drastically undercut the FCC's ability to make  a fast, affordable and open Internet available to everyone in  America — they are actually taking a position against the  interests of rural and low-income communities. This is  unacceptable. We need to make sure they know that their constituents  and other consumers are paying attention and will hold  them accountable when they undermine net neutrality  protections. What this comes down to is a principle known as "net  neutrality." Net neutrality means that Internet users, not  Internet service providers, should be in control. It ensures  that Internet service providers can't speed up, slow down,  or block Web content based on its source, ownership, or  destination. Of course broadband providers are insisting that we should  just trust them and there's no need for consumers to be  protected by net neutrality rules. But we cannot trust AT&T,  Verizon or Comcast to protect a free and open Internet any  more than we could trust BP to protect the oceans. Without strong net neutrality rules, we might have to rely upon  the good will of large telecoms to protect our access to the  diversity of political perspectives. We might have to trust  companies like Comcast, which actively and secretly  interfered with users' ability to access popular video, photo  and music sharing applications. We might have to trust  companies like AT&T, which censored anti-Bush  comments made by Pearl Jam's lead singer during a concert. A free and open Internet is an important part of 21st Century  democracy, but these members of Congress signed a letter  that undercut the efforts of the FCC to make sure the  Internet stays free and open. In other words, they decided to stand with wealthy  corporations rather than stand up for your interests. Click here to automatically sign the petition to the 74  Democrats telling them you want them to stand up for  you, not the telecoms. The simple fact of the matter is that powerful companies  with a vested interest in this fight like AT&T have  armies of lobbyists to push their agenda. If these 74 Democrats are going to get the message that  it's unacceptable for them to sell out American consumers,  it's only going to be because people like you speak up. Thank you for standing up for a free and open Internet. Matt Lockshin, Campaign Manager CREDO Action from Working Assets