Yesterday the U.S. Conference of Mayors passed a resolution in support of network neutrality, a major step in solidifying widespread support for a free and open Internet. At its annual meeting in Dallas, a meeting that brings together over a thousand mayors from cities across the United States, the Conference voted in favor of rules to preserve transparency, and prohibit blocking discrimination. The resolution was championed by Mayor Ed Lee of San Francisco, CA, and sponsored by five other mayors from Madison, WI, Philadelphia, PA, Los Angeles, CA, Tucson, AZ, and Seattle, WA.
The resolution comes on the heels of the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) May 15th vote to adopt a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to update its 2010 Open Internet Rules, which a U.S. district court largely vacated in January. However, the NPRM has generated widespread concerns from the public interest community, grassroots organizations, and tech companies large and small, primarily because the proposed rules would not be able to adequately protect against paid prioritization .
In the resolution, the mayors urge the FCC to maintain rules similar to those enacted in 2010 and specifically assert that “all data on the Internet should be treated equally.” The resolution also pointed to harms that would impact the startup community if the FCC’s currently proposed rules were enacted without any revision, highlighting that “startups are the engine of an innovation economy, yet may not have the cash flow to pay for paid prioritization, and will therefore be unable to compete with large companies to deliver content to customers, impeding startup growth, thus limiting economic development and the creation of jobs.” Startups like Contextly have written comments to the FCC, stating that absent strong net neutrality rules, they would not have been able to get off the ground.
Finally, the resolution called on both the White House and Congress to stand in support of the principles of net neutrality and “use their lawmaking power to enshrine access to a free and open Internet.” During President Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign, he stated that he would “take a backseat to no one” on the issues of net neutrality. Since the FCC’s May 15th vote, however, Obama has remained largely silent.
Yesterday’s vote shows that there is widespread support for strong net neutrality rules from not only the public interest community, tech and media advocates, startups, and big tech companies, but now also from the largest association of U.S. mayors. The mayors leading the charge on this resolution should be commended. It is now the responsibility of the FCC to listen to the chorus of people calling to ensure that the Internet remains a free and open platform.
UPDATE: The Open Technology Institute at the New America Foundation, along with over 30 public interest groups and companies, sent a letter to the mayors thanking them for their commitment to network neutrality.
