Live Free Online
Today, the Federal Communications Commission voted to begin the unraveling of net neutrality, a common-sense consumer protection that enhances our online experience.
Net neutrality is the concept that requires Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to provide equal access to applications and to content online. It means Internet Service Providers should not be able to discriminate against content and content providers by making certain web pages, applications, or videos load faster or slower than others. Net neutrality is integral to promoting innovation, supporting entrepreneurs and small businesses, and encouraging economic growth in New Hampshire and across the entire nation.
In March, Washington Republicans — with the support of the Trump Administration — voted to take away critical online privacy protections, giving ISPs the green light to collect and use consumers’ online data without their consent. So it’s no surprise that what corporate ISPs want next is to remove baseline protections that allow even the softest voice to be heard or the smallest of businesses to thrive against larger competitors.
I have heard from Granite Staters calling and writing to my office that we must fight to protect the net neutrality rules that create an even playing field and protect consumers from unfair practices.
But at the request of big cable companies and Internet Service Providers, the Republican-controlled FCC, led by Chairman Ajit Pai, is taking aim at common-sense consumer protections that could change the free and open Internet as we know it.
In New Hampshire, innovative small businesses are the backbone of our economy, creating good jobs and stimulating economic growth — and net neutrality has been integral to their success.
If it were not for net neutrality, entrepreneurs like Abby Fichtner would not have been able to succeed and share their talents with the world. Abby owns a website design company called Digital Muse in Salem, New Hampshire, and she has helped countless startups make their mark.
Digital Muse recently joined more than 1,000 startups, innovators, investors, and entrepreneurial support organizations from across the country in a letter to Chairman Pai urging him to protect net neutrality rules.
I plan to fight to do just that.
In giving entrepreneurs a level playing field to turn an idea into a thriving business that reaches a global audience, net neutrality helps promote innovation and boost economic growth. By dismantling net neutrality rules, Internet Service Providers would be allowed to force small businesses to “pay-to-play” online, causing instability for startups and entrepreneurs across the nation who might not be able to afford such fees. Companies like Digital Muse should be able to compete based on the quality of their goods and services, not on their ability to pay tolls to Internet Service Providers.
Net neutrality isn’t just great for startups and entrepreneurs, it has also created a platform for traditionally underrepresented voices — including women and minorities — to be heard — and as importantly, to add to our economic strength. Last week, my friend Senator Cantwell and I sent a letter — with several of our colleagues — to Chairman Pai, highlighting the importance of net neutrality to women and girls across the country. An open Internet serves as a platform to elevate voices that are underrepresented or marginalized in traditional media, an experience many women in the field know all too well. When turned away from traditional media outlets, women can turn to the Internet as an autonomous platform to tell their stories, in their own voices, thanks to the vast array of online media platforms enabled by net neutrality.
Between 2007 and 2016, while the total number of business firms in America increased by 9 percent, the total number of women-owned firms increased by 45 percent — a rate five times the national average. This growth in women-owned businesses mirrors the emergence of the free and open Internet as a platform for economic growth. Net neutrality has been essential to the growth of women-owned, innovative businesses, ensuring them the opportunity to compete with more established brands and content.
In addition to empowering women economically, an open Internet has the ability to empower all citizens civically.
The National Women’s March in January brought together hundreds of thousands of people to raise their voices and organize in marches across the country — and around the world — largely through online activism. The Women’s March, and the many other marches that have followed since January, demonstrate how an open Internet can serve as a powerful mechanism for civic engagement and strengthening communities.
The open and free Internet is too powerful of a tool for civic engagement and social and economic mobility — especially for our underrepresented populations — to take away, and strong net neutrality rules are absolutely essential. They protect against content discrimination, they prevent Internet toll lanes, they allow the FCC adequate room for oversight, and they require reasonable transparency from Internet Serve Providers. Not to mention, the stability that net neutrality provides our economy, entrepreneurs, and innovative small businesses that are integral to New Hampshire’s & America’s economic success.
I will continue fighting to ensure that our regulatory environment is one that spurs innovation, fosters economic growth, supports our small businesses, and allows the next young person with a big idea to prosper.
I strongly oppose rule changes that would undermine net neutrality, and I hope the FCC listens throughout the comment period to concerns from Granite Staters and Americans who feel the same.
