Title II Fans Say President Is With Them

Taking a page from President Barack Obama's statements earlier this week in support of network neutrality, advocacy groups have written the President thanking him for his strong support of protecting an open Internet, and saying the only way to do that is for the FCC to reclassify Internet access under Title II.

"I personally, the position of my administration, as well as a lot of the companies here, is that you don't want to start getting a differentiation in how accessible the Internet is to different users. You want to leave it open so the next Google and the next Facebook can succeed," the President told a group of African leaders this week.

"The only way for the FCC to truly protect an open Internet is by using its clear Title II authority. Over the next few months, we need your continued and vocal support for fair and meaningful net neutrality rules," the groups said in their letter. "Our organizations will continue to pressure the FCC to put forth solidly based rules, and will continue to encourage you and other elected officials to join us in doing so."

Groups signing on to the letter: ACLU, Americans for the Arts, 18 Million Rising, Center for Media Justice, Center for Rural Strategies, ColorOfChange, Common Cause, Consumers Union, CREDO, Daily Kos, Demand Progress, Democracy for America, EFF, Engine, Enjambre Digital, Etsy, EveryLibrary, Fandor, Fight for the Future, Free Press, Future of Music Coalition, Greenpeace, Kickstarter, Louder, Media Action Grassroots Network, Media Alliance, Media Literacy Project, Media Mobilizing Project, MoveOn.org, Mozilla, Museums and the Web, National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture, National Hispanic Media Coalition, Open Technology Institute, OpenMedia International, Presente.org, Progressive Change Campaign Committee, Progressives United, Public Knowledge, Reddit, Rural Broadband Policy Group, SumOfUs, the Student Net Alliance, ThoughtWorks, United Church of Christ, OC Inc., Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press, Women's Media Center, Y Combinator.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.