The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is expected to publish its repeal of net neutrality laws in the Federal Register on Thursday, setting off the timeline for Congress to push through an effort to block its implementation.
The FCC’s expected publication will set of the 60-day countdown for Congress to pass a resolution through the Congressional Review Act (CRA) rejecting the net neutrality repeal.
In December, the FCC voted 3 to 2 to overturn net neutrality laws, which ensured that internet service providers (ISPs) could not speed up or slow down internet traffic or charge more for certain content. Critics saw without the protections, the FCC opened the floodgates for potential throttling of content by ISPs.
The Senate’s version of the CRA needs just one more Republican to sign onto it to have enough votes to pass it. A similar CRA is being pushed through the House of Representatives.
If both houses of Congress pass their CRAs, President Donald Trump would still need to sign it into law.
Internet activists and tech companies are planning an online protest next week, called Operation: #OneMoreVote, that aims to convince lawmakers to join onto the CRA.
Operation: #OneMoreVote is being organized by Fight for the Future, Demand Progress, and Free Press Action Fund. Companies such as Tumblr, Etsy, Medium, Vimeo, Imgur, DuckDuckGo, Patreon, Sonos and others have signed onto the cause, according to organizers.
“Now it’s officially go time, and the internet is gearing up for a hell of a fight,” Evan Greer, campaign director of Fight for the Future, said in a statement. “The CRA is the clearest path to restore net neutrality protections that never should have been taken away in the first place. A vote is imminent, and every senator needs to decide right now whether they’re going to listen to their constituents or go down in history as having voted against the free and open internet.”
The protest will take place on Feb. 27. The groups will direct internet users to tools that will help them “take action” and petition lawmakers to sign onto the CRA.
You can read more about Operation: #OneMoreVote here.