Victory for Consumers and Democracy: Senate Votes to Restore Net Neutrality
May 16, 2018
Victory for Consumers and Democracy: Senate Votes to Restore Net Neutrality
Statement of Robert Weissman, President, Public Citizen
The internet belongs to the people and should be a bulwark of our democracy. That’s the message 52 senators sent when they voted today to restore net neutrality – in a spectacular victory for consumers and democracy.
Net neutrality means Comcast and Verizon won’t get to block politically disfavored sites. It means they don’t get to slow down our internet service or charge us more because we’re looking at a competitor’s video or news service. It means that we, the people, get to see and do what we want, and giant corporations don’t get to block competition.
The giant telecoms have been fighting net neutrality for years. The threat posed by empowering Comcast, Verizon and other internet service providers to exert a vise-like grip over the internet was so pressing that organizations across the political spectrum rallied together to protect the internet. Today, we saw the first results of this historic, cross-partisan coalition – and we hope that lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives will follow the U.S. Senate’s lead.
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