Protesters picket Verizon in Times Square over ‘net neutrality’

“Chairman Pai, who is the chairman of the FCC, he is one that is sort of pushing the rollback of net neutrality and our current representative Doug LaMalfa is not necessarily supporting net neutrality, either”.

But supporters of net neutrality say that without rules broadband providers will have too much control over consumers’ access to the internet and will shut out competitors in favor of their own services, leading to less innovation and higher prices.

All over the country Thursday, groups participated in more than 600 peaceful protests in front of Verizon stores.

“The open Internet lets artists reach each other and audiences across the world in unprecedented ways”, the letter reads. They will urge Governor Chris Sununu to condemn the Federal Communications Commission’s plan to destroy Net Neutrality.

The protest is being organized by Battle for the Net, a nonprofit organization that has been on the forefront of the fight to keep in place the current net neutrality rules that were first passed in 2015 under the Obama administration.

With the Federal Communications Commission on the verge of repealing net neutrality rules, there’s considerable uncertainty about how the change will affect the healthcare industry, with telemedicine, particularly for rural hospitals, up in the air.

Verizon and Comcast lobbyists are pressing to kill Net Neutrality.

“I’m seeing real democracy emerging through the internet”, said Michael T. Owen.

Without net neutrality, these corporations could cut off access to websites they – or the United States government, which through the NSA has historically been tied to telecom companies – deem inappropriate for the public to read, just like in North Korea or China. Mr. Owen expects that whatever happens, net neutrality will be ended. You may have seen this Thursday’s protest on Broadway.

Asked to respond, protest co-organizer Elizabeth Blakemore said simply, “We don’t believe them”. So, [our protest] is two-fold.

Messages seeking comment were left with Verizon.