The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is urging Internet supporters to continue calling their representatives in Congress. The idea is to keep up the pressure.
In the days after the repeal of network neutrality at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), there’s been a lot of “now what?” from a lot of American’s. Some American’s are signing petitions calling for FCC chairman Ajit Pai to resign. Others are supporting lawmakers in their bid to undue the decision. A few are even taking the matter court through litigation.
While the complexities of the repeal do muddy the waters by making matters more complex, there is still a push to find ways of fighting back. The EFF recently posted a call to action, telling people that the fight is not over.
The EFF highlights the fact that there is still a process under the Congressional Review Act (CRA). A simple majority is enough to allow the reversal of the repeal. After the FCC enters the repeal into the Federal Register, congress has 60 days to act. As such, the EFF is urging people to contact congress and push for an overturn of the repeal through the CRA.
In addition to this, the EFF points out that there is currently ongoing action on many fronts. Among them are court challenges from Public interest groups, state attorneys general, and members of Congress. Another front is the state level where forms of legislation is currently being considered to help defend network neutrality. Finally, there are efforts on the local level including pushing for community broadband and addressing the lack of ISP competition in many parts across the country.
If anything, this shows that the fight will continue on. It also shows that the fight is not over just because the FCC vote has already happened. At the end of the post, the EFF provides tools for American’s to continue the fight to save the Internet. The most immediate option appears to be pushing for a CRA which will open up in a few weeks time. From there, the window of opportunity is limited and governments generally have a reputation at moving slowly. So, even though 60 days sounds like a lot of time, chances are, by government standards, its not.
Given the amount of anger this has caused amongst American’s, the question is, can this be translated into action like what the EFF is hoping? Right now, that power is sitting in the hands of the American people.
Drew Wilson on Twitter: @icecube85 and Google+.
