FFTF

*****,

It’s happening. Ajit Pai, the former top Verizon lawyer in charge of the FCC, just announced his plan to completely repeal net neutrality, and the Internet is on fire with outrage.[1]

Pai clearly thought he could sneak this past while people are distracted by holiday plans on one of the busiest travel weeks of the year. We’re going to make sure he doesn’t get away with it.

We’re organizing a massive online calling campaign and nationwide protests at Verizon stores to channel the anger into something productive, amplify the backlash, and force this issue into the public eye.

Will you chip in to defend net neutrality and help make these protests happen?

There’s no way to exaggerate how bad the plan that Pai announced this week is. It completely repeals all existing net neutrality protections, and explicitly legalizes Internet censorship.[2]

By striking down the three core rules of net neutrality and allowing ISPs to charge extra fees, block, and throttle websites, the FCC is handing unprecedented control over what we see and do online to Verizon and its Big Cable buddies.

Ajit Pai isn’t even pretending that he’s not bought and sold by the telecom industry. But here’s the thing: he still has to answer to Congress.

The clock is ticking. Will you chip in to help us flood Congress with calls and organize high visibility protests to stop the vote to kill net neutrality?

Massive numbers of people are ready to act. But they need to know what they can do. Protesting at Verizon stores right at the start of the shopping season is guaranteed to generate *local* media coverage right in key lawmakers’ home districts, which is one of the most effective ways to pressure members of Congress.

In cities where it’s possible, we’ll march from Verizon stores to Congressional offices to drive the message home: we need Congress to do its job and stop the FCC. And remember: Verizon is FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s former boss and the reason he has this position. So by targeting Verizon we’re highlighting this insidious form of corruption at the FCC.

The massive outcry we’re already seeing is having an impact. We’ve driven a record breaking 200,000 phone calls to Congress in the last 24 hours alone. If we can push it just a little further, key members of Congress can and will step in and force the FCC to slow down or drop their plan altogether.

But it costs money to connect the phone calls, and we need to pay for banners, signs, and other materials for the protests.

Will you chip in to help us sweep the country with protests to save net neutrality?

The single most important thing for everyone reading this email to understand is that net neutrality is NOT dead yet.

Ajit Pai and Verizon’s army of lobbyists are hoping that we’ll give up, throw up our hands, and just accept this as one more terrible thing that happened this year.

But we refuse to let that happen, and we’re smart and strategic enough to know that Congress can still stop this vote and keep the Internet free from censorship and extra fees.

Will you chip in to help support our Verizon protests and help save net neutrality?

For the future,

Evan at FFTF