How you can help restore Net Neutrality Part 3: Voting begins tomorrow · 9:06pm May 15th, 2018
After months of campaigning, Senator Ed Markey and his bill to restore Net Neutrality is going to be put to a vote tomorrow. Although this bill is still unlikely to make it to Trump's desk, much less be signed into law, it does have an important function: It essentially forces every senator and house member in Congress to say where they stand on Net Neutrality: Do they favor everyone having equal access to the internet, or do they favor corporations having the right to carve it up in a pay-to-play scheme? Those who vote for corporations may find themselves facing angry voters in the midterm elections later this year.
With that said, it's still not too late to call your senator and representative and tell them to support Markey's measure. Use this website (or this one for representatives) to find your senators and representatives, and then call them up. You will either get their voice message system or an aide, at which point you can use this script:
"Hello. My name is __________, and I’m a resident of ____________. I'm calling with regards to Senator Ed Markey's measure to overturn the FCC and restore Net Neutrality. Because I believe the internet is a resource that everyone should be able to access and use equally without paying more for additional content, I urge (name of your senator/representative) to support efforts to restore Net Neutrality. Thank you.”
At this point, it seems inevitable that net neutrality will die. Short of building a time machine and enacting wacky timey-whimey universe-ending paradoxes, the only thing we - the ordinary people of the United States - can do is let our representatives know that we want it back, and we will remember who voted against it when we go to the polls again.
We can't stop what's coming, but we can plant the seeds to bring a neutral internet back again.
It still annoys me how bills get names for the sole purpose of misleading the ill informed. The bill to revoke net neutrality was named the "Restoring internet freedom" act. This means that the polititions can say that they are for freedom of the internet while supporting the opposite.