Twitter announced Thursday that it will join the net neutrality “Day of Action,” giving a high-profile boost to the campaign to preserve Obama-era net neutrality rules.
The San Francisco-based social media giant is the latest in a string of prominent companies who are officially entering the fight the protect the net neutrality rules created in the 2015 Open Internet Order.
The rules aimed to maintain a level playing field for companies on the internet and prevent certain types of content from being prioritized over others.
{mosads}Twitter will join Amazon and Netflix, which recently announced that it would participate, along with smaller internet companies like Vimeo, Etsy, Kickstarter, Reddit and others who are trying to stop Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai from implementing his “Restoring Internet Freedom” proposal to scrap the rules.
Publishing platform Medium, which was founded by Twitter co-founder Evan Williams, and Soundcloud also announced on Thursday that it would be participating.
“This protest is gaining so much momentum because no one wants their cable company to charge them extra fees or have the power to control what they can see and do on the Internet,” said Evan Greer, campaign director of Fight for the Future, the advocacy group organizing the day of action.
“Congress and the FCC need to listen to the public, not just lobbyists. The goal of this day of action is to make them listen,” she continued.
Major internet companies, who had been very outspoken during prior fights over net neutrality in 2014 and earlier, have been more hesitant to take a vocal stance this time around.
Companies like Facebook and Google say that they still support net neutrality but are no longer pushing campaigns in support of the rules. Instead, they’re opting to speak through their trade association, the Internet Association, who has been vocal supporting net neutrality rules on Silicon Valley’s behalf.
Cable and broadband companies like AT&T, Verizon, Time Warner and others have launched an aggressive counterattack in support of Pai’s plan. They argue that the net neutrality rules are onerous regulations that stifle broadband investment, which hurts their ability to give consumers better products.