Calling for a Net Neutrality Hearing

From AT&T's political censorship of Pearl Jam's Lollapalooza concert and Verizon selectively providing communications opportunities to some nonprofits (e.g., Amnesty Intrntl., Repub. Ntl. Comit.) but not others (i.e., NARAL) - we're hearing more about telecommunications providers filtering communications to their customers.

Today the ACLU called on Congress to hold hearings to explore such anti-consumer actions taken by Internet service providers that infringe on users' freedom of speech and access to lawful information.

As Caroline Fredrickson, Director of the Washington D.C. Legislative Office, said, "The recent revelations regarding actions taken by Verizon and AT&T demonstrate what advocates for network neutrality have been saying all along: Internet service providers cannot be trusted to protect consumers' access to information or their freedom of speech. These very same companies are spending millions of dollars to lobby Congress for the right to block our access to content on the Internet. We now see where that will lead us. Clearly, without the vigorous net neutrality protections that were in place before 2005, a few corporate conglomerates will control everything we can say or do on the Internet. Net neutrality is needed, and it is needed now."