Net Freedom’s poll says that 58% of undecided voters in Republican-held swing districts say they are more likely to vote for an incumbent who takes immediate action to force a vote to overturn the FCC — while only 8% are less likely to support such an incumbent. Conversely, not supporting the CRA is a potential liability: If a Republican incumbent refuses to take immediate action to force a vote to overturn the FCC, 45% of undecided voters are less likely to vote for them.” Continue reading New Poll Shows Republican Swing District Voters Want Support For Net Neutrality CRA→
The 2018 California Consumer Privacy Act is a law that will require technology corporations, such as Google and Facebook, to drastically alter their business models regarding data collection and privacy regulations. The legislation was unanimously approved by the state legislature on June 28 and signed by Gov. Jerry Brown (D) the same day. The bill’s quick turn around resulted from pressures that legislators faced from an upcoming November ballot initiative, which would have created more stringent privacy rules. It will go into effect on January 1, 2020.Continue reading California Enacts Law Protecting Consumer Privacy, But There is Still a Ways to Go→
The last couple of weeks have not been good ones for those who see communications as a social justice issue.
The 2015 Open Internet Order, which ensured Internet neutrality and fairness, was finally stripped out of the law books per order of the Trump FCC, now run by a former lawyer for Verizon. San Francisco’s plan for a publicly-owned fiber broadband network was put on hold, and all indications are that Mayor Breed will likely bow to AT&T and Comcast by keeping it from resurfacing. And California’s own net neutrality bill, designed to reverse what Trump’s FCC had done, got ambushed by an upstart young Assemblymember. Continue reading Profiles in Corruption: How Telecoms Control the State Legislature→
Months ago, watchers of California’s state legislature saw cause for worry in the co-introduction of two different statewide net neutrality bills to respond to the federal repeal of open Internet protections by Trump’s FCC chair Ajit Pai. Continue reading It’s Time To Get A Spine, Sir.→
As Washington and Oregon stamp and enact the country’s first statewide Net Neutrality laws, the battle in California, one of the biggest and most proposperous states and the Internet’s literal birthplace is just getting started.
55 groups (including Media Alliance) sent an open letter to the Democratic members of Congress urging them all to get on board with the Congressional Resolution of Disapproval (CRA) against the December 2017 repeal of net neutrality and avoid trying to create regulatory legislation in an uncertain Congress.
The letter states: “Internet freedom activists, grassroots organizers, social justice advocates, labor unions, and progressive organizations like ours oppose Pai’s assault on our ability to communicate and connect. The internet has been a transformative tool for free speech and for organizing in furtherance of civil rights and social and economic justice. A free and open internet enables political dissidents and marginalized communities to make their voices heard on their own terms — without being stifled or warped by corporate gatekeepers such as broadband internet service providers (ISPs)”.
American net neutrality policy, a decade-old dumpster fire, flared up again this week with the FCC’s party-line vote approving chairman Ajit Pai’s Restoring Internet Freedom order. It scraps the FCC’s own 2015 regulations prohibiting internet service providers from blocking or throttling (slowing down) access to certain web sites and services or charging them extra money for “fast lanes” with better access. The vote was no surprise to the many activists, businesses, and state governments who have already been planning legal counterattacks. With 2018 being an election year, they will argue the case not only to judges but also to voters—pressuring both courts and Congress to take action. Continue reading The Political Dumpster Fire Of Net Neutrality Is Just Heating Up→
