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Dear Ali,
Big news: the FCC just voted to protect the open Internet by creating strong net neutrality protections! This is a major civil rights victory, and it wouldn’t have been possible without the voices of ColorOfChange members.
Please take a moment to share the news and celebrate our victory:
The open Internet is fueling a new civil rights movement. Without it, we might not have been able to spread the word about what happened to Mike Brown or Eric Garner. Our ability to be heard, counted, and visible in our democracy depends on net neutrality, because it allows voices and ideas to spread based on their quality — not the amount of money behind them.
Because millions of people stood up to fight for net neutrality, the FCC is now putting in place strong rules to protect net neutrality. It’s hard to overstate how big this victory is.
Net neutrality has always defined how the Internet works. Internet users and content providers pay to send and receive data at certain speeds — but in between, no one can interfere with how that information travels. It’s what makes the Internet so diverse, and so powerful.
ColorOfChange.org wouldn’t have gotten off the ground without an open Internet. We began almost ten years ago with an email to a couple thousand friends and colleagues. Our membership grew as people signed our petitions and passed them on. Our message spread to the degree that it resonated. Now, we have more than a million members, and we’ve spearheaded or contributed to many important civil rights victories.
For years, big Internet service providers like AT&T, Verizon, and Comcast have tried to destroy net neutrality, so they can make a killing by creating fast and slow lanes online. If they succeed, corporations would dominate the Internet by paying to prioritize their content online, and the voices of everyday people would be drowned out or blocked entirely.
Just a year ago, very few people thought a victory this big was possible. The telecom industry was spending millions to influence the debate, and it looked like they were winning. Sadly, they succeeded in buying the support of civil rights organizations like the NAACP, Rainbow PUSH, and National Action Network, who echoed talking points from the telecom industry rooted in trickle down economics. Some Black members of Congress joined the ISPs, after taking big campaign contributions from the telecom industry.
As we raised our voices to make it clear that net neutrality is essential for civil rights, some of those who were being paid to carry water for the telecoms told us that this wasn’t our issue, and that we couldn’t win. They said we didn't know how Washington worked; that it was a done deal; that the big telecom companies and the legacy civil rights groups with telecom money were too strong for us and our allies to face down.
What they underestimated was the power of everyday people using our voices strategically, empowered by the open Internet. ColorOfChange members worked together with members of organizations like the Center for Media Justice, the National Hispanic Media Coalition, Presente.org, Free Press, Demand Progress, Fight for the Future, CREDO Action, and MoveOn.org. Together, we stood up to big money and refused to back down, and we defied the conventional wisdom in Washington that says that money always beats people power.
With the grassroots at their back, Black members of Congress like Rep. John Lewis, Rep. Keith Ellison and Rep. Maxine Waters rallied their colleagues in the Congressional Black Caucus to support net neutrality in greater numbers than ever before. President Obama spoke out forcefully — which would have been much harder for him to do if it looked like he was acting against the wishes of the civil rights community. The president’s action changed the political calculus in Washington, giving the FCC cover to push for stronger net neutrality rules.
Now, the FCC is finally doing what supporters of net neutrality have been demanding for years. We’ll have to remain vigilant to make sure that the FCC enforces its rules aggressively, and that Congress doesn’t undermine net neutrality.
But this is a massive victory, and it belongs to all of us. It means that future generations will have the ability to continue and expand our movements for justice and equality.
Celebrate our victory by telling the story of how the voices of everyday people won against the big money of the telecom industry:
Thanks and Peace,
--Rashad, Arisha, Matt, Brandi, Dallas and the rest of the ColorOfChange team.
February 26, 2015
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