808,363 Americans Tell the FCC: "Do Not Regulate the Internet" - American Commitment

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 16, 2014
In just three weeks, a massive outpouring of American voices say “No”to the Radical Left’s push for Internet Regulation
American Commitment Vows to Top One Million Signatures OpposingTitle II and Net Neutrality, Deliver to FCC, Capitol Hill
Washington, D.C.— Over three quarters of a million Americans have officially told the Federal Communications Commission they do not want the Internet regulated by Washington bureaucrats, according to American Commitment,a national advocacy organization who encouraged Americans opposed to proposed Internet regulations to speak out.
In the past three weeks, over808,363 [UPDATED 9/16/2014]Americans filed comments opposingany regulation of the Internet.
As the radical left promotes a highly misleading campaign that in reality would reclassify the Internet as a “public utility” (as if it were a monopoly telephone service) American commitment offered an honest choice before the American people – should politicians in Washington regulate the internet, or leave it alone? Overwhelmingly, the American people want the Internet free of the federal government’s control.
The group will continue to collect signatures until it reaches at least one million, which will be delivered to the FCC, the White House, and all members of the House and Senate. Starting Tuesday, emails and phone banks will mobilize signers to call Congress and say “no” to regulating the Internet.
“Everyone needs to get this story right: on our side are the vast majority of the American people who love the Internet the way it is — unregulated, supported by private investment in a free economy, competitive, and highly innovative. On the other side are radical left activists, who are seeking political control over the Internet,” saidPhil Kerpen, president ofAmerican Commitment.”This exceptional outpouring of support for true Internet freedom is proof positive that the American people firmly oppose any federal regulation of the Internet.”
“The leftist proponents of regulation keep hiding their true agenda. They pretend to be defenders of the Internet we all know and love, but what they are actually advocating are massive new monopoly-style ‘public utility’ regulations on the Internet – regulations that have been opposed for decades by a bipartisan consensus which included President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore, Democratic FCC Chairman Bill Kennard, and the bipartisan majorities in Congress who passed the 1996 Telecom Act specifically to move away from monopoly regulation and into the competitive world we live in today,” Kerpen said.
“A federal government takeover of Internet services would be disastrous for commerce, free speech, and the future of the Internet as a sphere of innovation. The American people oppose Washington’s effort to put unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats in control of the Internet—which will create higher prices, less competition, and less freedom,” Kerpen concluded.
American Commitment’s public comment campaign has urged FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler to keep the Internet free of government control, and finally recognize that Americans oppose any version of the crippling Internet regulations now under consideration — especially “Title II” public utility regulations. Congress and the Courts have said “No” to previous, less onerous versions of these regulations, and now the FCC should respect the will of the American people and their representatives, rather than pursuing the reckless “nuclear option” of reclassification, opposed by industry analysts because it would threaten the tens of billions of dollars in private investment that go into Internet-service upgrades every year.
Americans can still sign the petition atwww.StopInternetRegulation.org.