Thanks to the hundreds of phone calls of net neutrality supporters from CREDO members like you, FCC Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski has agreed to re-regulate broadband Internet so the FCC has regulatory power to protect net neutrality.

It’s an important step toward victory in our fight to save an open and free Internet, and it’s thanks in part to the pressure of CREDO Action members like you. Our friend Tim Karr is campaign director at Free Press, a nonprofit that leads the fight to save the Internet (and an organization that CREDO members have been supporting with their phone bills for years). He wanted us to share this statement with CREDO Action members:

The push by CREDO activists, netroots and progressive media has pulled the FCC from the brink. FCC Chairman Genachowski was about to abandon Net Neutrality. But after hearing hundreds of calls from CREDO members he regained his senses.

Now we’re facing a long fight as the agency revisits a Net Neutrality option that will give it the power to stop phone and cable companies from blocking our access to information online. Thanks to CREDO activists, we’re now cautiously optimistic that this FCC is getting back on track and will give Internet users the Net Neutrality protections we need.

Thanks for everything you do to fight for net neutrality. We will continue to keep you updated on the most effective ways to take urgent action and save the Internet.

Matt Lockshin, Campaign Manager
CREDO Action

IMMIGRATION — PHOENIX SUNS WILL WEAR ‘LOS SUNS’ JERSEYS IN PART TO PROTEST ‘FLAWED’ IMMIGRATION LAW: The Phoenix Suns basketball franchise announced that players will be wearing “Los Suns” jerseys tonight for Game 2 of its playoff series against the San Antonio Spurs. The game, which coincides with Cinco de Mayo, will be played in Phoenix. Team owner and registered Republican Robert Sarver said the jerseys will “honor our Latino community and the diversity of our league, the state of Arizona and our nation.” Sarver also made it clear that the selection of the Spanish-language jersey is a political statement against Arizona’s new anti-immigrant law. “However intended, the result of passing this law is that our basic principles of equal rights and protection under the law are being called into question,” Sarver said. He added that while he understood the “frustration with the federal government’s failure to deal with the issue of illegal immigration,” the state’s law is “flawed.” The team’s star point guard Steve Nash said separately, “I think the law is very misguided. I think it is unfortunately to the detriment to our society and our civil liberties.” “I think the law obviously can target opportunities for racial profiling,” Nash added. The Center for American Progress Action Fund’s Matthew Yglesias noted that the Nash, along with the Spurs’ Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker, are all immigrants. “In general, it says good things about the National Basketball Association that foreigners with top-notch basketball skills generally want to come here and play. And the flow of foreign talent to our shores makes the NBA a better product — indeed, an iconic global brand that’s marketed internationally as a U.S. export,” Yglesias wrote. Meanwhile, the Major League Baseball Players Association has also called for repealing the law and a number of Latino baseball players have spoken out against it as well.

Do you think your Internet service provider should be able to prevent you from receiving e-mails like this if they don’t agree with the political message? What if you couldn’t access the news site of your choice because your broadband company cut an exclusive deal with Fox News?

Make a call today

Hundreds of CREDO Action members made calls yesterday — and we got their attention. Help us keep the pressure on by calling the FCC today.

A free and open Internet is an important part of 21st Century democracy. But without net neutrality protections, large communications companies will be empowered to dictate the content Internet users have access to.

Until very recently, the Federal Communications Commission under President Obama was poised to ensure consumers enjoyed the protection of strong net neutrality rules. Under those rules, Internet users, not Internet providers, could chose where they go, what they read and watch, and whom they connect to on the Internet.

But a recent court decision threw the legal underpinning of that effort into question, and it looks like the FCC might respond in the worst way possible — by giving up and selling out on net neutrality.

Can you take one minute to call the FCC and tell Chairman Genachowski not to cave on net neutrality? Click here for the number to call and a sample script.

On Monday, the Washington Post reported (citing three sources) that Chairman Genachowski “has indicated he wants to keep broadband services deregulated.”

This course of action would be a complete abdication of responsibility on the part of the FCC. The FCC has a duty to ensure that big corporations don’t discriminate when it comes to the ability of Americans to access information over the Internet. In fact, the FCC is empowered by Congress to do just this.

All the FCC needs to do is reverse a Bush-era decision to deregulate the Internet, which has handed too much power over the Internet to companies like AT&T, Comcast and Verizon.

It was the Bush-era FCC that made this mistake in the first place, so it’s entirely within the power of the Obama administration’s FCC to do what’s necessary to make things right.

Tell Chairman Genachowski not to cave on net neutrality. The FCC must stand up for consumers, not bow down in the face of pressure from the giant corporations. Click here for the number to call and a sample script.

What’s especially troubling about this news is that just last Wednesday, Chairman Genachowski (who has historically been a supporter of net neutrality) professed his “unwavering commitment to ensuring that the free and open Internet is preserved and protected.”

However, that’s entirely incompatible with leaving broadband deregulated.

Whether it’s Enron or Countrywide, we’ve seen what happens when deregulation allows corporate America to run amok.

The government has a role in ensuring that the Internet remains the same vibrant, open environment that has allowed it to become such an important part of how we participate in our democracy. Throwing in the towel and caving on net neutrality would do irreparable harm and fundamentally change how the Internet is run. We simply can’t let that happen.

Call the FCC and tell Chairman Genachowski not to cave on net neutrality. Click here for the number to call and a sample script.

Thank you for working to preserve a free and open Internet.

Matt Lockshin, Campaign Manager
CREDO Action from Working Assets