By doing so, the FCC maintains its authority and reaffirms its commitment to carry out the consumer protections, broadband subsidies, Universal Service Fund reforms, competition policies, open Internet/net neutrality protections, and plans to expand wireless access in the communities that need it most that are detailed in the recently released broadband plan.
"We did it!" says Amalia Deloney, Coordinator for Media Action Grassroots Network (MAGNet), a project of Center for Media Justice (CMJ). "Through thousands of emails, calls, letters, videos, blogs, media appearances, delegation visits, and actions the Center for Media Justice - and its signature project, the Media Action Grassroots Network - successfully used the openness of the internet to mobilize more than a million voices from communities of color, migrant, rural, and poor communities nationwide to demand that Genachowski’s FCC define broadband as a universal service."
"Today we sustained a partial, but big, victory for equal access online and strong open internet rules for Net Neutrality, which is essentially the first amendment of the Internet." added Malkia Cyril, Executive Director of Center for Media Justice. "We could not have accomplished this feat without our allies like Media Access Project and others, and the millions of Americans who took action and called their commissioners. As this victory demonstrates, together, we can win our freedom to innovate, connect, and make social change online."
CMJ and MAGNet have also recently released a couple of resources and policy briefs for everyday people on Open Internet Rules and Broadband Reclassification as Title II Universal Communications Service: They can be downloaded by clicking on multi-media links to the left of this page or by clicking the links below.
Open Internet Broadband Reclassification
Migrants and an Open Internet
The Media Action Grassroots Network (MAG-Net), a signature project of Center for Media Justice, is a local-to-local advocacy network of grassroots social justice, media, and cultural organizations working together to shift power relations for social change through the critical use and transformation of media and communications systems.