Activists protesting in favor of net neutrality and against the Comcast/Time Warner Cable merger blocked FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler from leaving his driveway Monday with a large banner reading “Save The Internet!”.
A video of the event released by Popular Resistance shows some half-dozen protesters sitting in front of Wheeler’s car explaining that they won’t let him leave for work because the group believes he is representing corporate rather than consumer interests in major decisions currently before the FCC, including whether to allow Internet service providers to establish paid prioritized lanes of fast and slow web traffic, or grant permission for Comcast and Time Warner Cable to establish one of the largest media mergers in history. (RELATED: Comcast, Time Warner Cable Pay $132,000 To Honor FCC Commissioner Ahead Of Merger Approval)
“I’m sorry because we can’t let you go to work today because you work for Comcast, Verizon and AT&T, and not for the people,” one protester said. “We can’t let you go there because you’re selling us out on Internet neutrality and that’s not okay with us.”
Wheeler tried to speak with the protesters amiably at first before eventually giving up and going back inside his home.
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The protest came on the same morning President Obama announced strong support for net neutrality, and encouraged the Wheeler-led FCC to re-classify the Internet as a common-carrier utility similar to telephone service, which would grant the government more authority in regulating ISPs and preventing tiered Internet speeds of higher and lower prices for Internet content providers and consumers. (RELATED: Obama Announces Support For Net Neutrality)
Obama’s announcement was met with a mixture or support and opposition.
Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz described the president’s plan as “Obamacare for the Internet,” while Computer and Communications Industry Association CEO Ed Black praised the decision. (RELATED: Cruz: “Net Neutrality Is Obamacare For The Internet)
“A groundswell of millions of comments supporting the open Internet is evidence of the importance of having effective rules preventing paid prioritization and discriminatory treatment,” Black said Monday. “The challenge now is for the FCC to act promptly and to make sure opponents of the open Internet don’t use complexity and confusion as tools to weaken this effort to issue new rules protecting the Internet.”