Chairman Pai's Net Neutrality Plan Under Cyber (Monday) Attack

Airbnb, Pinterest, Reddit, Tumblr, Twitter and Vimeo were among over 200 businesses that signed a letter to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai dated Nov 27 (as in Cyber Monday), trying to dissuade him from his planned network neutrality rule rollback vote. Pointing to the Cyber Monday hook for the letter, they called the online shopping version of the brick-and-mortar Black Friday "a testament to the power of the free and open internet to encourage entrepreneurship, drive innovation, make our lives easier, and to support a healthy economy." "Disastrously, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) last week released a draft order that would end open [internet] commerce by repealing the current net neutrality rules and eliminating the protections that keep the internet free and open for America’s businesses and consumers," they wrote. "Without these rules, internet service providers will be able to favor certain websites and e-businesses, or the platforms they use to garner new customers, over others by putting the ones that can pay in fast lanes and slowing down or even blocking others. Businesses may have to pay a toll just to reach customers. This would put small and medium-sized businesses at a disadvantage and prevent innovative new ones from even getting off the ground."