This is only my opinion, and not the representation of Saintel Daily, LLC.
The Senate Democrats have officially filed a petition that will force a vote on the FCC’s removal of net neutrality protections. The FCC’s decision was published in the Federal Register on February 22nd, and as per the Congressional Review Act, the Senate has 60 days from that date to take action. The Democrats had enough signatures to call a vote, but they’re still one person away from actually overturning the FCC decision. In order to encourage one more Senator to join, they have launched the Red Alert campaign. And when I say “they”, it’s every Senator who is a Democrat and one Republican.
A number of companies including Reddit, Tinder, Match.com, OkCupid, TripAdvisor, Tumblr, Etsy, Wikimedia, and GitHub are posting red alerts on their sites today urging visitors to contact their Senators and express their support for net neutrality.
Evan Greer, Deputy Director of Fight for the Future had this to say:
“The internet is lighting up in protest once again because this Senate vote will impact the future of the web for years to come. This is the most important moment in tech policy since the FCC repeal and everyone should be paying attention. This is the moment for entire web to come together to fight. Net neutrality is not a partisan issue outside of Washington DC. Now we need to get DC to catch up with the rest of the country.”
The challenge with this is that they can go through all of these hurdles, and it still won’t get overturned. Why? Well, Donald Trump has the final say, if you remember from Civics 101. If they do get this last vote needed to successfully overturn the FCC decision, the House of Representatives will have to take a similar course of action. Senator Markey said today that there are already 160 Representatives on board, but that’s far from the 218 needed for a vote to restore net neutrality. While I’m hopeful that net neutrality will be restored, I’m not confident because of that veto option.
I mean, look at what Trump is doing in terms of other sanctions and agreements. He has no regard for those, so why would this be any different? His platform is America first, and what he means by that is businesses in America first. In this scenario, the only ones who will benefit from this are the big telecom companies. And, in some roundabout way, Donald Trump. I’m not the only one who feels this way. Demand Progress, Director of Communications, Mark Stanley made this statement:
“Congress is fast approaching one of the most consequential votes on internet policy and free expression this century. Lawmakers are going to have to make a choice, and the sides are clear. They can join with big cable companies that want to control the internet for profit. Or they can stand with the millions of Americans who rely on the open internet for news, entertainment, and communication, as well as small business owners who depend on it for their livelihoods.”
Based on that quote – which side do you think Donald Trump is going to choose?