Tech Companies Join Forces on Cyber Monday to Defend Net Neutrality

Joining progressive open Internet advocates, more than 200 companies made an argument in favor of net neutrality on Cyber Monday, highlighting how the Trump administration’s planned rollback of the Obama-era net neutrality rule would harm both businesses and customers.

The annual online-shopping event is “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,” wrote companies including Airbnb, Twitter, Pinterest, and Etsy, which all spread information about Cyber Monday deals or benefit from the event’s sales.

With the letter, the companies joined the voices of independent media companies, social movements that have been able to organize online, and other open Internet advocates in calling for a continuation of rules that allow all websites to be treated equally by internet service providers (ISPs).

Net neutrality has come under attack by Federal Communications Commission (FCC) head Ajit Pai, who announced earlier this month that the agency would hold a vote on December 14 regarding a potential repeal of the rules that protect websites from discriminatory treatment by large ISPs like Comcast, AT&T, and Verizon.

Without net neutrality, these telecom corporations would be able to give faster service to proprietary or wealthy websites that can afford it while while disadvantaging or blocking others by forcing them into a “slow lane.”