Google, Facebook Join Pro-Title II Protest

Joining what organizers say is almost 70,000 groups, forums, companies and people, the dominant online ad platforms Google and Facebook will be participating in the protest of plans to roll back Title II, according to organizer Fight for the Future.

Rather than the internet slowdown day some of the same groups leveraged to help block online piracy legislation more than a half-decade ago, the idea behindJuly 12's protest is to speed up public pushback—on the Hill, at the FCC and elsewhere—against the proposal by FCC chairman Ajit Pai to reverse the Title II (common carrier) classification of internet access and reconsider the rules against blocking, throttling and paid prioritization buttressed by Title II. 

Among theJuly 12actions will be alerts that suggest ISPs are slowing the site or charging for access—though neither will be the case—and mobile app push notifications so they can warn their app users that "big ISPs" are trying to slow down their app or control their access. 

Organizers are also encouraging social media users to change their avatar for the day to the dreaded "endlessly loading" icon.

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.