Protesters face off with Verizon, AT&T

PROTESTERS FACE OFF WITH VERIZON, AT&T
[SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Marguerite Reardon and Declan McCullagh]
Protesters lined streets on both coasts Wednesday to bring public awareness to the telecommunications policy debates currently going on in Washington, D.C., and to show opposition to the phone companies reportedly providing customer records without a court order to the National Security Agency. The protest, called National Day of Out(R)age, was staged in several cities throughout the United States, including New York, Chicago, Boston and San Francisco. Recent consolidation among telecommunications providers has made many people wary of the concentrated power the new mega-phone companies wield, especially in Washington, D.C., where they are spending millions of dollars to lobby Congress as it makes changes to the Telecommunications Act. This, coupled with reports that the phone companies helped the National Security Agency compile a database of Americans' phone records, has raised eyebrows among watchdog groups and concerned citizens. "Communication policy should be decided in a democratic fashion," said Michael Eisenmenger, of a nonprofit group called saveaccess.org, who helped organize the protest in New York City. "And it doesn't look like that is happening today. These companies are spending millions of dollars lobbying and setting Astroturf front groups. And we think someone needs to look out for the public interest."
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* Verizon Can Hear Protesters Now
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