WILMINGTON — A protest planned for Thursday will gather people in front of a Wilmington Verizon Wireless store to protest the upcoming Federal Communications Commission vote on net neutrality.
According to Mark Stanley, director of communications for Demand Progress, the Wilmington protest is one of 600 planned nationwide. The choice of Verizon locations is meant to highlight the relationship between federal regulators and private companies, including Verizon Communications, the parent company of Verizon Wireless and Verizon’s Internet service provider (ISP) division.
According to Stanley, “the new chairman of the FCC, Ajit Pai, is a former top lawyer for Verizon, and the company has been spending millions on lobbying and lawsuits to kill net neutrality so they can gouge us all for more money. By protesting at Verizon stores, we’re shining light on the corruption and demanding that our lawmakers do something about it.”
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, whose plans for changing how the FCC regulates ISP behavior have caused upset since they were released on Nov. 22, the day before Thanksgiving.
Currently, FCC regulations – including what is known as “net neutrality” – require ISPs to provide the same level of access to all websites, and prevent privileging or slowing down sites. Pai’s proposed changes would allow ISPs to throttle – that is, slow down – or speed up certain websites for certain customers, based on how much they pay.
These changes would allow an ISP like Verizon or Comcast to slow down Netflix – or YouTube, or even something as universal as Google – to an unusably slow speed unless a customer paid extra for that particular site. Some ISPs have continued to promise not to do so, but many customers remain wary at best, Stanley said.
Jack Campbell, who is organizing the Wilmington protest said he got involved because he fears the end of the open Internet.
“I got involved because of everything that is currently happening in the media and across the world,” Campbell said. “It is important that people from around the world can still connect freely, and without limits, somewhere where they can exchange ideas, news and information without censorship or a political governing body that can control or alter the information that a free Internet provides. By repealing net neutrality not only will we lose our freedom, but corporations and the government will make money off of it and this is beyond unacceptable.”
Congress could, in theory, pass new legislation restoring net neutrality and/or otherwise change how the government regulates – or refrains from regulating – the Internet. That, Stanley said, is the real point of the protest, which encourages participants to send messages to their congressional representatives from the event.
Many of the protests also plan to move to the offices of nearby congressional representatives. In Wilmington, that’s the office of David Rouzer, located in the New Hanover Government Center at 230 Government Center Drive. Campbell said he believes some protesters will also visit Rouzer’s office after the protest at Verizon.
The protest is planned for 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 7, at the Verizon Wireless store located at 318 S College Road. Organizers have asked protestors, “please remember, this event is about protesting actions of Verizon executives, lobbyists and their supporters in Washington, not the employees at the local Verizon store.”
For more information about the planned protest, or to register, visit the protest’s local website. You can also find information about other planned protests at the nationwide site.
Send comments and tips to Benjamin Schachtman at ben@localvoicemedia.com, @pcdben on Twitter, and (910) 538-2001.
