The Internet Is a Utility, Just Like Water & Electricity

Despite the double-talk the Federal Communications Commission and anti-net neutrality companies like Verizon specialize in, the internet is a utility, just like water and electricity, and should be classified as such. 

The FCC is weak, and it's no accident that its current chairman, Tom Wheeler, who is a former telecom exec, gave generously to Pres. Obama's presidential campaign and got his friends to give generously, possibly as much as $1 million, to Obama's campaign.

I really thought, given Pres. Obama's youth and former connection to youthful voters, which has apparently evaporated, he wouldn't mess with net neutrality. Given former Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (AZ)'s well documented past of taking money from the anti-net neutrality telecommunications industry, I had every expectation that he would mess with net neutrality. Ditto super-rich Republican candidate former Gov. Mitt Romney (MA).

Pres. Obama is even worse than I thought he'd be. His appointments, so far, have been disastrous (Kathleen Sebelius as Secretary of Health and Human Services, who presided over the disastrous rollout of Obamacare in October 2013; Gen. Eric Shinsecki, who couldn't seem to summon up any sense of urgency when veterans were dying due to criminal negligence throughout the country, and certainly in Phoenix, on his watch; and worst of all, Attorney General Eric Holder, who took no interest in getting to the bottom of a rogue gun operation called Fast and Furious that went off the rails and put no Wall Street CEOs in jail for criminal conduct).

As for appointing Tom Wheeler as FCC chairman, it's bad enough to be incompetent, but to be so corrupt as to sell out net neutrality for money? I'm appalled.

Republican Rep. Bob Latta (Ohio) already has a bill started in the U.S. House of Representatives that disallows the FCC from classifying the internet as a utility.

The FCC should immediately classify the internet because it is a utility. For FCC Chairman to do anything less is to destroy net neutrality.

What can you do?

Tweet @TomWheeler FCC.
Email TomWheeler@FCC.gov
Call 1-888-225-5322

If you've given up altogether, read the desperate, abusive, and sometimes threatening emails the more frustrated among us have sent to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler already. They've been categorized, and the category titles, at least, are funny! There's "Super-Pissed, Legitimately Threatening, and/or Offensive," "Weird References to Childhood," "Aristotle," and "Excellent Closing Lines." Enjoy, especially the young and the young at heart.