Net Neutrality

Today, the Federal Communications Commission dealt a body blow to the public interest by votingvoted to entrench monopoly in broadcasting and business broadband, Common Cause said. The FCC majority eliminated price restraints on Business Data Services (BDS), allowing incumbent carriers to charge exorbitant rates on small businesses across the country. In a separate proceeding, the same majority voted to reinstate a legal loophole that broadcasters exploit to monopolize ever more of the airwaves.

Privacy goes the way of populism as Trump rolls over again for big business. Despite a campaign filled with rhetoric about the plight of forgotten Americans, Trump has once again come down on the side of corporate profiteering at the expense of Americans who don't sit on corporate boards and can't afford a $200,000 membership at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach. Trump has flip-flipped on his own campaign promises and handed over Americans' right to privacy to those with the deepest pockets.

On the eve of the Senate Commerce Committee’s first Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Oversight Hearing of 2017, Common Cause and 170 allied public interest organizations sent a letter to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune and Ranking Member Bill Nelson calling for the protection of the free and open internet. The letter urges these leaders to support and continue to enforce the 2015 Open Internet Order and to oppose legislative and regulatory actions that would threaten the strong net neutrality rules already in place.

The President's stated goal of a 75 percent cut in federal regulations in unattainable, and a bad idea to boot.

Ajit Pai, senior Republican on the FCC, has been tapped to serve as its new chairman

"I am totally convinced the majority of Americans, including many who voted for the new president, strongly favor an open internet and a media ecosystem that is up to the task of informing democracy,”