14 DAY TRIAL // The fight for net neutrality is nowhere near done, it seems, as the Internet Slowdown organizers, Fight for the Future, and domain registrar Namecheap teamed up to park a truck with a huge video billboard near the FCC building in Washington, DC.
The video billboard will play a steady stream of net neutrality videos that were sent by Internet users from all over the world, as well as footage of the net neutrality rallies from New York City, Philadelphia and Chicago. The videos will run through the FCC’s comment deadline and during the roundtable hearings scheduled for Tuesday.
“Building off the momentum of last week’s record-breaking Internet Slowdown protest, net neutrality supporters have obtained a permit to park a truck with a roof-mounted 11’ wide video billboard directly outside FCC headquarters in Washington, DC,” reads the announcement.
Fight for the Future has made an appeal for Internet users to submit videos to play on the billboard placed outside the FCC headquarters so they can express to the world why net neutrality is important for them.
“Washington DC is worlds away from the vast majority of Internet users who would suffer from the FCC’s current proposal. The video billboard helps give more people a way to get their message right in front of the FCC. Thanks to the open Internet, it’s easy for people to send us videos about why net neutrality matters to them,” said Ted Worcester, Head of Product at Namecheap. Worcester is actually at the site armed with a laptop and sending up videos to the billboard.
Holmes Wilson, co-founder of Fight for the Future, is hopeful that the video billboard will help brighten things up with the voices of millions of people who are passionate about keeping the Internet free.
If the FCC doesn't listen to people, they'll bring the people to the FCC
Evan Greer, Campaign Director for Fight for the Future, sees the move as a reaction the FCC’s refusal to go travel the country and hear the public’s opinion in person before making a decision that would allow ISPs to create so-called fast lanes for companies with deep enough pockets to pay for the privilege. He states that if the FCC doesn't go to the people, they’ll bring the people to the FCC in a way that won’t be easy to ignore.
The Internet Slowdown day was a success, with over 40,000 websites running warnings of the dangers of allowing the FCC to kill net neutrality. Over 760,000 new comments were sent to the FCC, over 2 million emails reached the Congress, and 300,000 phone calls were made to its members.
