I was excited for this week. I took today off, and the office is closed Thursday and Friday for Thanksgiving; hello five day weekend. Unfortunately Ajit Pai decided to ignore 98.5% of respondants that wanted the ISPs to remain classified under Title II, and mid-December the internet will likely drop back down to Title I classification. There is however an investegation that Ajit Pai is currently obstructing into falsified comments around Net Neutrality. This isn’t an article to go over the differences, or even dive too deep into why I think this is a bad idea. If you are reading this we already agree that destroying Net Neutrality is a bad idea.
It’d be easy to point the finger at Ajit Pai, the person that is ignoring the public’s comments and is siding with the 1.5% that was for destroying Net Neutrality. I don’t blame Ajit though. I never expected this person to do the right thing. Someone that will stonewall an investigation around falisified comments to mislead the American people was probably never concerned about our own interests.
I was deeply disappointed when I found out about the vote that occurred in October to reinstante Ajit Pai for four more years as Chairman of the FCC. Democrats in the Senate worked together to bring this to the floor for open discussion. However to my surprise there were some democrats that decided to vote to keep Ajit Pai. Others decided to simply abstain and not vote.
Who Voted To Keep Ajit Pai?
It was mostly split between party lines. Republicans either abstained or voted Yay (in favor) for Ajit. However there were some Democrats that also showed up in the Yay roll call along with a few that chose to abstain from this incredibly improtant vote to save Net Neutrality.
The following Democrats voted to destroy Net Neutraility:
Gary Peters of Michigan voted to dismantle Net Neutrality
Hart Senate Office BuildingSuite 724Washington, DC 20510Phone: (202) 224–6221
Jon Tester of Montana voted to dismantle Net Neutrality
311 Hart Senate Office BuildingWashington, DC 20510–2604Phone: (202) 224–2644Fax: (202) 224–8594
Joe Mahcin of West Virginia voted to dismantle Net Neutrality
306 Hart Senate Office BuildingWashington D.C. 20510Phone: (202) 224–3954Fax: 202–228–0002
Claire McCaskill of Missouri voted to dismantle Net Neutrality
503 Hart Senate Office BuildingWashington, D.C. 20510Phone: (202) 224–6154Fax: (202) 228–6326
The following Democrats and 2016 Presidential Hopeful abstained:
Bob Menendez of New Jersey didn’t show up to save Net Neutrality
528 Hart Senate Office BuildingWashington, D.C. 20510Phone: (202) 224-4744Fax: (202) 228-2197
Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada didn’t show up to save Net Neutrality
204 Russell Senate Office BuildingWashington, DC 20510Phone: (202) 224–3542
Bernie Sanders of Vermont didn’t show up to save Net Neutrality
332 Dirksen BuildingWashington, D.C. 20510Phone: (202) 224–5141Fax: (202) 228–0776
Wow, what an amazing Coffee Mug, via CNET.
Help Save The Internet!
Just because there will be a vote to repeal the Title II classification doesn’t mean there isn’t something we can still do. I strongly recommend visiting Save the Internet to find out more information about what you can do. Also feel free to contact the above Senators to voice your opinion on their voting decision. Of course, sharing this article will help to spread the word and giving some applause help others on Medium discover this.