Net Neutrality Blackout Wants to Break the Internet Before FCC Vote
How you can participate in this web-based protest.
The Federal Communications Commission will vote Thursday on a proposed plan to repeal net neutrality provisions, but the internet is having none of it. Following protests at Verizon stores around the country last week, starting Tuesday a web-based protest will wage for the next 48 hours.
It’s called “Break the Internet,” and it’s the brainchild of a non-profit called Fight for the Future. The idea is to show how awful the experience of using the internet might be if the FCC strips away regulation prohibiting ISPs for charging tiered prices for different levels of access to the web.
The group is providing a host of tools that internet users can employ to demonstrate their support of a free and open internet. Reddit, Boing Boing, Etsy, and a whole bunch of other online businesses have already gotten on board, and Fight for the Future is now asking everyday internet users to protest too.
At battleforthenet.com, you can download widgets, banners, and images, or you can even take your site offline and replace it with the image below, to show other internet users what the future could look like:
Ouch.
They also have a lot of cool gifs:
Ugh.
There are also pop-up alerts that can direct users to ways to call their local Congress members. The FCC is made up of a Republican majority, and they’re likely to vote in support of Pai’s plan, so Congress is probably the only body of government that can potentially step in and inhibit the FCC’s decision.
