News

I’ve been thinking about news that surfaced last week around Verizon throttling speeds for video content on its wireless network. Customers reported seeing their speeds capped at about 10 megabits per second for Netflix and YouTube streaming, and some suggested the caps were causing performance issues by degrading video quality.

WASHINGTON — On Tuesday, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden (R–Oregon) announced his plans to invite the CEOs of the largest phone, cable and internet companies to a September hearing on “ground rules for the internet.”

WASHINGTON — On Monday, the groups that led the mass mobilization of millions of people during the July 12 “Day of Action to Save Net Neutrality” launched Team Internet — the next phase of organizing to defend the open internet.

WASHINGTON — On Monday, press accounts reported that Rep. Andy Biggs (R­–Arizona) plans to introduce a House companion to Sen. Mike Lee’s (R–Utah) Net Neutrality repeal bill, S. 993.

WASHINGTON — On Thursday and Friday, news reports documented customers’ claims that Verizon Wireless is throttling video streaming on the company’s mobile network.

WASHINGTON — On Wednesday, Voices for Internet Freedom, a coalition of organizations advocating for the digital rights of communities of color, filed comments calling on the FCC to maintain the strong Net Neutrality protections it adopted in 2015.

Critics of the Sinclair-Tribune merger, including Free Press, a Washington advocacy group, have accused Sinclair of trading sycophancy for favorable regulation.

WASHINGTON — On Monday, Free Press submitted comments to the Federal Communications Commission, once again demonstrating that the 2015 decision to base Net Neutrality rules on Title II got it exactly right.

Grassroots effort to tap into cash from the sale of public airwaves will continue through the summer and into 2018 if need be, Free Press Action Fund organizers say.

Make no mistake: Net Neutrality is one of the defining workers’ rights and civil rights issue of our time. We all know the internet is driving changes in culture, politics and the economy. It is also one of the key spaces where workers can organize.