Tim Berners-Lee, Vint Cerf, and other internet pioneers plead with Congressional leaders to save net neutrality from FCC assault.
As the FCC vote to undo net neutrality requirements looms, some of technology’s greatest minds have come together to issue a plea to congressional leadership to save the internet as we know it.
Even though millions of letters from the general public were ignored, in a last ditch effort to preserve net neutrality, 21 high profile technologists have penned an open letter to the FCC.
Addressed to Marsha Senators Roger Wicker and Brian Shatz, along with members of Congress Marsha Blackburn and Michael Doyle, the letter carries the blunt title, “Internet Pioneers and Leaders Tell the FCC: You Don’t Understand How the Internet Works.”Overturn Net Neutrality? The internet’s founders have a word on that…
Among the signees are Tim Berners-Lee, Vint Cerf and Steve Wozniak, along with fellow tech pioneers and top names from Mozilla, Betaworks, Internet Archive and Tufts. The letters asks that the politicians call on Ajit Pai to cancel the planned December 14 “Restoring Internet Freedom Order” vote that looks to overturn Obama-era regulation that established net neutrality rules.
The note calls out the FCC for failing to hold open meetings and seemingly ignoring the millions of comments submitted by the public. The signees also point to a 43-page comment submitted to the commission over the summer on behalf of many of the same names.
“The proposed Order would also repeal oversight over other unreasonable discrimination and unreasonable practices, and over interconnection with last-mile Internet access providers,” the letter reads. “The proposed Order removes long-standing FCC oversight over Internet access providers without an adequate replacement to protect consumers, free markets and online innovation.”
Here’s the full text of the letter:
