Comcast Attempting to Block US Internet

40,000 protest Comcast attack on Netflix

The Huffington Post front page, the AP, and the New York Times are reporting developing details about the big news that broke last night: Comcast will essentially block Netflix unless a new fee is paid to Comcast -- so Netflix's price goes up and people use Comcast's video service instead.

This outrageous abuse of power by Comcast comes on the very week that President Obama's FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski will announce whether he'll fulfill Obama's promise to protect the open Internet and Net Neutrality -- which would prevent this type of corporate abuse.

The FCC needs to hear from the public right now, before the chairman's big announcement this week. Within hours, over 40,000 people have signed this emergency petition from the Progressive Change Campaign Committee:

FEC: "Don't let Comcast block Netflix or other online innovators for their own profit! Support the strongest Net Neutrality protections possible -- and keep Obama's promise." Click here to sign.

We'll deliver these signatures to the FCC this week. Sign here.

What else could Comcast do if the FCC doesn't protect Net Neutrality?

Internet providers like Comcast can drive their financial competitors (or political opponents) out of business by charging them more, for no good reason -- exactly what's happening right now.

For instance, Comcast could block or degrade iTunes, which competes with Comcast's own online music store.

Worse, the FCC will soon decide whether to allow Comcast to buy NBC! Not only would this bad actor become Keith Olbermann's boss, but can you imagine what Comcast will do to block customers from getting video from ABC, CBS, and other media outlets like the Huffington Post? This is way more serious than just movies -- the FCC's decision impacts pretty much everything.

Tell the FCC to stop Comcast's abuse of power and protect the open Internet. Click here -- then pass it on.

Thanks for paying attention to this important issue.

Follow Adam Green on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Adamgreenonline

Posted in: Net Neutrality , Foreign Influence  Tags:

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Two FCC Commissioners and one US Senator slammed the Google-Verizon joint policy agreement and strongly endorsed the principle of net neutrality last night at a hearing before hundreds of citizens in Minneapolis, giving the Chairman of the federal agency Julius Genachowski all of the support he would need to regulate broadband Internet, if he so chose.

Democratic Commissioners Michael Copps and Mignon Clyburn both endorsed the reclassification of broadband as a communications service, under Title II of the Telecommunications Act. Copps said simply, “It’s calling an apple an apple.” If Genachowski agreed, he would thus have enough votes to pass the change in policy. Genachowski and the FCC released a plan in May to reclassify, but has yet to move on it, taking meetings with industry stakeholders and generally foot-dragging in an effort to reach consensus.

In the interim, Internet giant Google and telecom giant Verizon announced a joint policy agreement that made a distinction between wireline and wireless Internet, and also allowed for undefined “managed services” to discriminate between online content. Both Copps and Clyburn sharply criticized the statement. The deal “would eliminate any openness provisions over wireless, which is where all Internet applications are going,” said Copps, the longtime Commissioner. Clyburn, the daughter of House Majority Whip James Clyburn, agreed. “Any proposal that treats wire-line and wireless Internet differently would be impossible for me to support,” she said, citing the increasing tendency for minority Web users to access the Internet on phones or wireless devices. More...

Posted in: Net Neutrality , Information , Netroots , Democracy  Tags:

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Since his election in the nail-bitingly close campaign against former Republican Senator Norm Coleman, former Saturday Night Live comedian Al Franken has emerged as one of the strongest voices in favor of so-called "Net Neutrality" policies being considered by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

Franken has called "Net Neutrality" the most pressing free speech issue in modern day America, and supports policies which would require Internet service providers to treat all legal traffic equally. More...

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