Thanks!

Net Neutrality supporters just won a new round in the fight to keep the Internet free of corporate gatekeepers like Comcast.

Over the past three months, more than 23,000 SavetheInternet.com activists sent letters to the Federal Communications Commission demanding an end to Comcast’s practice of blocking peer-to-peer traffic on its network.

Earlier this week the FCC came through, announcing that it would investigate an official complaint made by several SavetheInternet.com Coalition organizational members about this clear violation of Net Neutrality.

The agency is now seeking public comment in the face of mounting evidence of this blocking. (The commission also asked for comment on complaints by SavetheInternet.com members Free Press and Public Knowledge about Verizon Communications’ recent blocking of text messaging.)

The FCC will consider the public response before it decides whether to punish Comcast for filtering Web traffic.

Please take a moment to tell the FCC to put an immediate stop to content blocking by any ISP.

A Non-Neutral Comcast

Late last year, the Associated Press caught Comcast secretly using Web filtering technologies similar to those used in China to censor the Internet. AP called the violation “the most drastic example yet of data discrimination.”

In November, Free Press and other open Internet advocates filed a petition with the FCC calling for urgent action to stop Comcast’s Internet blocking. Tens of thousands of activists sent letters to the agency in support of our petition.

Until now, the company’s spokespeople have thumbed their noses at the public and the press — refusing to admit that the blocking of connections is underhanded or in any way threatens the free flow of information that’s become the hallmark of an open Internet.

Make an Example of the Gatekeeper

Comcast’s defense is flimsy. The company’s blatant and deceptive blocking is exactly the type of problem Net Neutrality supporters warned would occur without open Internet protections. Public pressure is now forcing the FCC to act.

Comcast’s meddling with user content is the canary in the coal mine for corporate efforts to control the Internet. The FCC must send a stern message to stop other phone and cable companies that want to follow Comcast’s lead.

Blocking access to the Internet should never be tolerated. The longer the FCC waits to punish Comcast, the more companies will continue to invest in technologies to censor and manipulate what we can do online.

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin today announced his intention to investigate blocking of peer-to-peer file-sharing services by Comcast and other Internet service providers. “Sure, we’re going to investigate and make sure that no consumer is going to be blocked…I tell the staff that they should act on all of those complaints and investigate all of them,” said Martin. But will the FCC Chairman keep his word?

“We hope the Chairman’s statements, made two months after we filed our complaint, will lead to immediate and accelerated action at the FCC on the critical issue of whether Comcast, AT&T and other Internet service providers can block the services people want to use,” said Marvin Ammori, general counsel of Free Press.

In October, an Associated Press exposé found that Comcast was secretly interfering with user access. This was later confirmed by an EFF report. In response, members of the SavetheInternet.com Coalition filed a petition with the FCC calling upon the agency to take action against such net neutrality violations. In an accompanying complaint, Free Press and Public Knowledge asked the FCC to fine Comcast $195,000 for every affected subscriber.

In another petition filed in December, members of the SavetheInternet.com Coalition protested Verizon Wireless’s refusal to send text messages from NARAL Pro-Choice America. (Verizon later reversed its policy after a New York Times expose generated public outrage). The petition — filed by Public Knowledge, Free Press, U.S. PIRG, Media Access Project, Consumers Union and the New America Foundation — urged the FCC to prohibit cell phone companies from blocking or interfering with text messages sent over their networks. It also stated that cell phone companies should treat text messaging like spoken phone conversations — delivering all information to their customers without censorship.