Amazon, Mozilla, Kickstarter, and Reddit Are Staging a Net Neutrality Online Protest

Washington Post

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Some of the Internet's biggest names are banding together for a “day of action” to oppose the Federal Communications Commission, which is working to undo regulations for Internet providers that it passed during the Obama administration.

Among the participants are Etsy, Kickstarter and Mozilla, the maker of the popular Firefox Web browser. Also joining the day of protest will be Reddit, the start-up incubator Y Combinator, and Amazon (whose chief executive, Jeffrey P. Bezos, also owns The Washington Post.)

On July 12, the companies and organizations are expected to change their websites to raise awareness of the FCC effort, which is aimed at deregulating the telecom and cable industries. Mozilla, for example, will change what users see on their screens when they open a new browser window.

At stake are the government's net neutrality rules, which prohibit Internet providers from blocking or slowing websites or charging them special fees in order for their content to be displayed to consumers.

The digital rally recalls a similar online effort in 2012 by Google, Wikipedia and others to protest federal legislation on Internet piracy. The companies blacked out their websites in an effort to show how the bill could lead to censorship.

Sam Altman, the president of Y Combinator, said Tuesday that many of the small businesses he has helped nurture have gone on to become major players in the Internet ecosystem, such as Dropbox.

“Without strong net neutrality rules, though, I’m concerned that the cable and wireless companies that control internet access will have outsized power to pick winners and losers in the market,” Altman said in a statement.

Some participants, such as Mozilla, are highlighting how repealing the rules could hurt free speech, competition and innovation on the Internet.

“The FCC is endangering Americans' access to a free and open web,” Denelle Dixon, Mozilla's chief legal officer, said in a statement. “The FCC is creating an Internet that benefits ISPs, not users.