Occupy Google and Saving The Internet

If you don’t take a stand for net neutrality, corporations, like cable companies, are more than happy to sound off against it by creating fake people’s campaigns. Corporations are people too, right? Time is running out to make YOUR VOICE heard in the latest test to a free Internet.

So, what is going on right now? In May of 2014, the FCC proposed a plan to partition the Internet into multiple tiers, prompting major tech companies such as Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon to warn in a letter to the FCC that the proposed changes “represent a grave threat to the Internet”. What can we do? Occupy Google (visit them here) states:

We have only until July 15 before the public comment period ends for the FCC. So on July 10, we’re calling everyone to a global day of action. An Internet blackout campaign modeled after the anti-SOPA/PIPA online protests that managed to preserve Internet freedom in the past.

Blackout their entire website for a day, replacing it with an info link to petitions and the FCC comment page.
Add a button to their website connecting users to information and petitions online.
Create their own creative way to connect their users to this issue and how to fight back.
We are committed to occupying the Google Headquarters until the company gets involved in honest dialogue on net neutrality, and until real action is taken to maintain a free and open Internet.

From WIRED, 23 June 2014

An article in WIRED seems to say that the best thing to do is to just step aside and let the grown-ups handle the Internet. Entitled, “What Everyone Gets Wrong in the Debate Over Net Neutrality,” by Robert McMillan, the grown-ups in question in this article are not exactly to be trusted. In fact, the further along you read, it’s not so much a case of everyone getting it wrong as it’s a case of everyone needs to wake up and get informed, and get involved. One nugget from this article:

The problem today isn’t the fast lanes. The problem is whether the ISPs will grow so large that they have undue control over the market for fast speeds—whether they can independently decide who gets access to what connection at what price. “The question is which kinds of fast lanes are problematic and which kinds are not,” says Marvin Ammori, a lawyer and net neutrality advocate.

Press release from Occupy Google follows:

For Immediate Release

Contact: OccupyGoogle@hushmail.com

Net Neutrality Supporters Occupy Google

On the afternoon of Tuesday, June 24, supporters of net neutrality established a protest occupation on the grounds of Google Headquarters, in Mountain View, CA.

The group of demonstrators released the following statement on their website – http://www.occupygoogle.org

“We are assembled to pressure Google to take action and protect net neutrality in order to maintain an open internet. We believe the internet must remain as a space:

Without discrimination against users
Without censorship of content
Without access fees

We are among many who are wary that a proposal by the FCC to regulate the Internet could lead to censorship of content by Internet Service Providers. An open letter directed at the FCC was signed by dozens of major technology corporations including Microsoft, Google, Facebook, and Amazon. Their letter claims that the proposed changes to regulation “represent a grave threat to the internet.”

Unrestricted access to information is a cornerstone of democracy. Our actions today will define the information available in our society tomorrow. The occupation of Google Headquarters aims to generate momentum nationwide to defend net neutrality and the open Internet.

We call on anyone in solidarity with the open internet to join us in this occupation.

The demonstrators have invited, “all those concerned with maintaining the Internet as a free and horizontal communication platform to join us here at 6pm every day for a general assembly to discuss how to move forward in defending Internet freedom.”

A page from their website states, “The truth is that the internet is quickly becoming the greatest catalyst for transforming the world we live in. It is through these tools that we have recently seen governments & corporations challenged, entire political systems revamped, and new innovations birthed.

We are taking action to defend the Internet as our public commons.”

On July 10th we are calling for an online day of action to demand Net Neutrality.