Today the Senate voted down a dangerous resolution that would have shuttered the open Internet.
Good riddance. This outrageous measure would have stripped us of our right to communicate freely online and handed control of the Internet to companies like AT&T, Comcast and Verizon.
But the public outcry -- including hundreds of thousands of emails and phone calls to all 50 senators in just the past week -- stopped this resolution in its tracks. Net Neutrality's champions in Congress spoke out passionately and persuasively about the importance of the free and open Internet before the final 52-to-46 vote today.
The proponents of this outlandish measure tried to argue that Net Neutrality would make the government a gatekeeper on the Internet. That's absurd. Net Neutrality is what prevents gatekeepers and allows anyone with a good idea, a new product or something important to say to find an audience without any interference.
Net Neutrality fosters innovation and is the reason a few grad students can launch Google, a few hobbyists can start eBay, and some students can invent instant messaging. None of these innovations came from a phone or cable company.
If we were to lose Net Neutrality, we would lose all of the great new things that haven't yet been invented or imagined. Getting rid of Net Neutrality won't keep away the gatekeepers. It will create them.
What's Next?
Now that we've thwarted this partisan stunt in the Senate, we can get back to the real priority: strengthening the Federal Communications Commission's rules so that they protect all Internet users, whether they access the Web via their home connection or a mobile device.
The FCC's new rules go into effect on Nov. 20. They include some modest protections for Internet users, but they fail to protect us from corporate abuse on the mobile Internet. As more and more of us use phones and tablets to get online, we need to make sure that all Internet users are protected.
In the months to come, Free Press will push the FCC to make its Open Internet rules much stronger -- even if that means going to court, where we are suing the agency for failing to protect all Internet users.
Of course, Net Neutrality's enemies will keep attacking, as well. And Verizon is already suing the FCC, claiming it doesn't have the authority to protect consumers from the company's plans to discriminate online.
But today's Senate vote is a major victory for the public and sends a resounding message: the American people don't want companies like AT&T, Comcast and Verizon blocking websites or interfering with our ability to access whatever we want, whenever we want it, from wherever we are.
Today, at the least, the Senate showed it was willing to stand up to extremists who would rather waste time with partisan measures than make good policy. But the fight for the free and open Internet is far from over.