About SavetheInternet.com

SavetheInternet.com is a project of Free Press, the nonpartisan organization working to reform the media. We fight on behalf of millions of everyday people to protect our Internet freedoms.

SavetheInternet.com has four goals for achieving Internet freedom. We are working for true Net Neutrality (wired and wireless), strong protections for mobile phone users, public use of the public airwaves and universal access to high-speed Internet.

These issues comprise the foundation of our effort to protect everyone’s right to communicate freely online.

• Net Neutrality. When we use the Internet on a computer or a smartphone, we take a lot for granted. We assume we'll be able to access any website or use any application we want, whenever we want, at the fastest speed, whether it's a giant corporation’s website or one for a mom-and-pop business around the corner. We assume we can use any service we like — watch online videos, update our Facebook status, read the news — any time we choose, on any device we choose.

  What keeps the Internet open is a principle called Net Neutrality — the longstanding policy that preserves our right to connect with everyone else online and share information. Click here to learn more about the ongoing fight to win strong and lasting open Internet protections for all Internet users.

• Mobile Freedom. Mobile connectivity is changing our politics, our communities and our relationships ... but the free speech and privacy rights of mobile Internet users are under siege.

  The more we use our phones for political engagement and speech, the more repressive governments will seek to control the mobile landscape. The more we use our phones for commerce, communications and consumption, the more wireless companies and their corporate partners will fight for top-down ownership of the entire system.

  As we’ve seen during the Arab Spring and the Occupy Wall Street movement, the ways that we engage in politics, produce news, organize our communities, tell stories and maintain relationships depend on access to mobile devices and the broadband data connections they provide.

  SavetheInternet.com is leading the fight to create a mobile future that puts users first.

• Public Airwaves. Smartphones are powerful computers in our pockets, but half that power comes from constant connectivity to wireless networks, which are built on public airwaves, or spectrum. Whenever your mobile device is connecting to the Internet, it’s using these public airwaves to do so.

  Both established companies and startups have long vied for access to this precious national resource. Mobile phone providers, TV and radio broadcasters, satellite operators, Wi-Fi networks, first responders and private companies with their own radio systems all use different swathes of spectrum.

  Historically, most of the best spectrum has gone to powerful TV broadcasters and phone companies. But advances in technology have made it possible for all of us to access the airwaves through community networks, Wi-Fi signals, innovative new devices and other more localized access points.

  To help the next generation of wireless technology take hold, we need to ensure that spectrum held by companies like AT&T and Verizon is put to use in the public interest — and we need to make more spectrum available outside of these companies’ control.

• Universal Broadband. Access to high-speed Internet service — also known as broadband — has become a basic public necessity, just like water or electricity.

  Yet despite its importance, broadband in the United States is far from universal. Millions of Americans still stand on the wrong side of the "digital divide," unable to tap into the political, economic and social resources of the Web.

  And Americans who do have a broadband connection pay more and get less than residents of most other developed nations. Survey after survey shows U.S. broadband quality, speed and adoption rates falling dangerously behind that of countries in Europe and Asia.

  This is unacceptable in our digital age, when getting all Americans connected to an open, fast and affordable Internet should be a national priority.

  Whether Americans are able to reap the benefits of broadband — and whether they enjoy a choice of providers, fast speeds and reasonable prices — largely depends on policy decisions made in Washington.