It’s time for us all to stand together and Protect Net Neutrality on July 12

Today is the day the Internet-wide protests come together to defend online privacy, protect  freedom of expression and stand against the proposed FCC net neutrality internet rules which will grant more power to the ISPs by allowing them to control our online activities and end Net Neutrality once and for all.

It’s time for us all to stand together and Protect Net Neutrality on July 12

The FCC net neutrality Internet rules will destroy the level playing field online – allowing widespread throttling, blocking, censorship, and fees to be imposed by big cable companies. Something so detrimental that both activists and corporations agree cannot and should not happen!

Thankfully, internet giants are taking FCC’s threats to end Net Neutrality seriously. Most online giants such Facebook, Google and over 180 other organizations including VPN.Express, have confirmed their participation against the FCC on July 12 to show their support for Net Neutrality. The participating companies will slow down their services and will display various error messages in an effort to convey what the internet will be like if Net Neutrality is removed from the US.

Who is participating?

Almost 70,000 individuals, websites, and organizations have signed on to participate in this campaign. These include Twitter, Reddit, Netflix, Amazon, Facebook, Google, Kickstarter, Vimeo, Etsy, Automatic (WordPress), Mozilla, OK Cupid, Imagur, Soundcloud, Medium and hundreds of other major web services.

On July 12, participants will display messages on their homepages supporting Net Neutrality. They’ll also encourage users to take action by sending push notifications, videos, social media messages and emails.These companies may also slow down their services for a while, or may display fake error messages only to display what will happen if Net Neutrality goes away.

Users who face such errors need not to panic. These errors shall only remain for a temporary period and will vanish automatically.

Why Stand up for Net Neutrality?

Net Neutrality principles are mainly supported for these reasons:

Quality of service: Data should never be number one priority for ISPs, they shouldn’t downgrade the quality of service for high-bandwidth content providers such as Netflix and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services.

Freedom of expression: The protection of users’ rights should not be left in the hands of private corporations, which are motivated primarily by profit and may not act in the broader public interest.

Innovation: Equal treatment of data will help maintain the innovative environment of the technology industry, rather than favoring established companies over startups and nonprofit projects.

Each of these principles is at serious risk by the FCC net neutrality Internet rules, so it’s time for us all to take action!

What We Hope to Achieve

By standing all together today we hope to achieve what’s been achieved in 2012 when the tech industry rebelled against a contented copyright bill known as SOPA by modifying or even blacking out their websites for a day. The resulting complaints led to Congress withdrawing the bill, and that’s what Today’s protest is all about.

Be part of this Protest and stand with us to protect your rights by leaving your comment on the FCC’s website. The current comment period is open until July 17.

Remember that your voice matters the most!

Be Safe. Be Free.