Free Press

[Commentary] Over the past two months, millions of people have taken to the streets to challenge our nation’s authoritarian new president. From the women’s marches that took place across the country and around the world to the mass protests against the Muslim ban and immigration raids, people are resisting the neo-fascist agenda President Trump is unleashing on our nation. A primary reason why millions have been able to mobilize so quickly is because they have the ability to use the open internet to communicate to the masses and organize a resistance. That’s why protecting the Net Neutrality rules that keep the internet open is more critical than ever.

As authoritarianism rises, digital free speech can ensure our opposition to authoritarianism also rises. But unfettered access to an open internet, and our ability to flex our digital muscles to advocate for the health and well being of our communities, could soon come to an end. In January, Trump appointed Ajit Pai as the new chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. In so doing he found someone who shares his disdain for popular democracy, privacy rights, the truth and the poor. And it appears his disdain also extends to the press. But the same communities Pai is targeting are fighting back to demand affordable internet access and to protect the Net Neutrality rules that ensure we can continue to organize and speak for ourselves online. As Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors once wrote: "It is because of Net Neutrality rules that the internet is the only communication channel left where Black voices can speak and be heard, produce and consume, on our own terms." This is why we must resist — and to ensure that the resistance will be digitized.

[Joseph Torres is the senior external affairs director for Free Press. Malkia Cyril is the executive director of the Center for Media Justice and the co-founder of the Media Action Grassroots Network.]

On March 16, the president proposed eliminating all federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a main revenue source for hundreds of local NPR and PBS stations across the country. The CPB’s $445 million cut amounts to just 0.04 percent of the $1.1 trillion of total annual discretionary spending in the president’s proposal — or approximately $1.35 per person. Seen through another lens, that $445 million amounts to little more than 2 percent of the total cost of Trump’s proposed Mexican border wall — estimated at $21.6 billion by the Department of Homeland Security.

Groups like the Free Press Action Fund and millions of people across the country will fight to save the CPB. A 2017 poll rated PBS and its 350 member stations as the most-trusted nationally known institution. Survey respondents also rated the federal funding that supports PBS as taxpayer money “well spent.” Public and community media are treasured local institutions that are far more popular than Congress or this president.

People with low incomes often have to make difficult choices about how to spend their money to best support their families. This is why so many people are still living without internet access. And those without reliable home internet access are missing out on opportunities to connect to jobs, complete homework and engage in our democracy. Since his promotion to chairman, Ajit Pai has taken steps to limit Lifeline broadband options and has essentially frozen Lifeline implementation. Thanks to the outcry from nearly 40 advocacy groups — including Free Press — Chairman Pai is now inviting public comment on his decision to stop nine companies from providing broadband service to Lifeline customers. That’s why we need to seize this opportunity and urge Pai to help bridge the digital divide. Tell him to revoke his decision on the nine companies and move forward on implementing the Lifeline Modernization Order now.

Feb 26 was the two-year anniversary of the FCC’s Open Internet Order, the monumental victory that enshrined Net Neutrality principles in strong rules backed by Title II legal authority. On Feb 27, a coalition of racial justice leaders and open internet champions held a briefing to celebrate this important milestone — and to gear up for the fights ahead. As Free Press President and CEO Craig Aaron noted, the story of winning Net Neutrality is the story of millions of people showing up to push policymakers in DC to do the right thing.

But some elected officials didn’t need pushing. Rep Maxine Waters (D-CA) understood from the first how important the open internet is for Black and Latinx communities in particular. “The Internet and social media have empowered individuals and communities all across this country to organize and mobilize in unprecedented numbers,” she said. “You have to ask yourself, who would benefit [from] any attempt to roll back internet freedoms?”

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Pai Ajit wants people to believe that he’s a champion for more open and affordable broadband. The actions he’s taken since becoming chairman last month show he’s anything but. Using the exact same kind of unilateral power plays he previously decried in other chairmen, he’s made it far more difficult for low-income families to take advantage of a program that makes broadband access more affordable. His only plan is floating tax breaks to companies for the networks they’re already building, even though he has no power to change tax law and even though these kinds of tax breaks would do nothing to make internet access more affordable.

Pai keeps repeating the utterly debunked claim that the FCC’s Net Neutrality rules are utility-style regulations that are hurting broadband deployment. This is false on the law and false on the facts. It ignores not just the actual language of the FCC order, which explicitly forbears from the bulk of Title II, but the actual impact that Title II reclassification has had on the market. Pai’s claim that Net Neutrality protections have created great uncertainty in the marketplace is a flat-out lie, as is his notion of flatlining investment by internet service providers. We long ago discredited these claims. Pai’s frequent charge that investment has declined is based on the claims made by one industry-paid analyst, who selectively edits the figures reported by some of these companies. But if you take account of the industry’s spending as a whole, you’ll see that broadband-industry investment was nearly 9 percent higher in the two years following the FCC’s 2015 Open Internet Order than it was in the two years prior. What’s more, these industry aggregate totals don’t tell the whole story. Individual companies large and small significantly increased their broadband-infrastructure investments following the rules’ adoption. Comcast, the nation’s largest ISP, has invested far more in the two years following the FCC's order as the company has rolled out the next generation of cable-modem service. Smaller providers like Cincinnati Bell have increased their investments in fiber-to-the-home technology. And all wireless carriers have invested in completing their 4G deployments and preparing for 5G. Reporters shouldn't let Trump's man at the FCC spread easily debunked falsehoods like these. Pai’s relentless spin and his inaccurate numbers beg the question: What else is Pai misleading us about? People need to take a moment to double check the alternative facts coming from this FCC chairman.

As of March 1, the FBI will no longer accept Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests via e-mail. Anyone seeking public records from the FBI will have to use a new online portal — or send requests via fax or snail mail. Online FOIA portals may seem like a good idea in theory, but government agencies make them difficult to use — with way too many burdensome requirements.

The Freedom of Information Act gives us a legal right to request public records, which allow journalists and watchdogs to hold the government accountable. FOIA requests uncovered harmful covert operations like COINTELPRO — an FBI program designed to dismantle civil rights groups, among others — and also exposed government surveillance of Black Lives Matter activists.

On Valentine’s Day, tens of thousands of Free Press members sent out love letters to the open internet that described why they need network neutrality. On Feb 23 we delivered these messages to the Federal Communications Commission.

We were met with resistance from the Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Protective Services. Both DHS and private security were adamant that we couldn’t protest on FCC property — turning everyone with a sign back to a grassy area across an alley from the building. In addition to taking personal information from two of us who entered the FCC to deliver our comments, private security leafed through all of our documents and then had us X-ray those same boxes of paper. Despite this reception, we managed to deliver our petitions and comments gathered by allies including the Center for Media Justice, Color Of Change, Daily Kos, Demand Progress, Fight for the Future, the Nation and Open Media. Our friends from Future of Music Coalition and Free Software Foundation joined in the delivery.

Nearly 40 civil rights, social justice, labor and digital inclusion groups sent a letter to the Federal Communications Commission urging the agency to reverse its decision that undermined the Lifeline Program.

Under previous FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, the agency expanded and modernized Lifeline to help make high-speed internet access more affordable to people in low-income communities around the country. New FCC Chairman Ajit Pai stymied program implementation in one of a number of decisions his FCC bureaus released on Feb. 3. Under Chairman Pai, the FCC revoked Lifeline broadband-provider status previously granted to nine internet service providers. The decision made it more difficult — if not impossible — for tens of thousands of low-income families and students to get online. He took away the connections of 17,500 customers that one of these providers was already serving, and stalled imminent service from other eight.

“Lifeline … is the only federal program poised to bring broadband to poor families across the U.S. so that they can connect to jobs, complete their homework, and communicate with healthcare providers and emergency services,” reads the groups’ letter to the FCC. “[W]e respectfully request that the Commission reject any further efforts to undermine Lifeline, swiftly implement the March 2016 Lifeline modernization order, and overturn the Wireline Competition Bureau’s Order on Reconsideration that rescinded Lifeline Broadband Provider designations for nine carriers prepared to offer Lifeline broadband services.”

Groups signing the letter include the AFL-CIO, the American Library Association, the Benton Foundation, the Center for Media Justice, the Center for Rural Strategies, Color Of Change, Common Cause, Communications Workers of America, Free Press, Generation Justice, Media Mobilizing Project, the NAACP, the National Hispanic Media Coalition, Native Public Media, New America's Open Technology Institute, Public Knowledge, and the United Church of Christ, Office of Communication Inc., among others.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Pai thinks he can set the record straight with more crooked words and made-up numbers. Like his boss in the White House, Chairman Pai should spend less time worrying about his media coverage and more time on his job. And his job is not to cheerlead for more corporate welfare for the biggest internet access providers in the form of tax breaks for their existing deployment plans. His job is to bring the benefits of open networks to all, something he’s failing at so far.

Chairman Pai can dissemble all he wants, but the reality is that on Feb 3 he alone took the promise of free high-speed access away from low-income workers, students, veterans and tribal communities around the country. His disdain for the Lifeline program is reflected in his defensive comments, a clear indication that he will make every effort to dismantle the FCC’s 2016 modernization order and delay its benefits.

Newly minted Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai took a page out of President Trump’s playbook and issued his own version of executive orders to undercut affordable broadband, greenlight more media consolidation and endanger key protections for internet users. Chairman Pai bypassed the democratic process, using “delegated authority” to deprive the full Commission of a vote (something he’s repeatedly railed against other chairs for doing), and shoving all these orders out the door on a Friday afternoon. Unfortunately for Chairman Pai, we’re committed to holding him accountable every day of the week. Here are the actions Trump’s new chairman tried to sneak under the radar:
1. Closed the FCC’s inquiry into zero-rating programs.
2. Stopped nine companies from providing discounted broadband to low-income families.
3. Killed the FCC’s guidance to broadcasters regarding shared service agreements and consolidation.
4. Killed a fledgling FCC inquiry regarding flexible spectrum use.
5. Rescinded a report on improving the nation’s digital infrastructure.
6. Rescinded a progress report on E-rate program modernization.
7. Set aside two orders for violations of political-file rules.
8. Set aside a white paper from the FCC’s Homeland Security Bureau addressing cybersecurity risk reduction.
9. Withdrew requirement that noncommercial stations file ownership-diversity data.