Julie Samuels, Executive Director

Net neutrality ensures a new startup or web service is able to compete with larger players because it doesn’t have to pay extra money to have its services delivered. This ultimately makes for a more creative and competitive technology ecosystem, like the one we enjoy today.

Tomorrow, many technology companies—from small startups to tech giants—will participate in a “Day of Action to Save Net Neutrality.” As part of this day, many popular sites and services will be alerting their users about the potential demise of net neutrality with special videos, banner ads, push alerts, emails, and other tools to rally people for this cause.

Many Tech:NYC members including Airbnb, Etsy, Facebook, Google, Kickstarter, Shapeways, Snap, Twitter, and Union Square Ventures will be supporting the day of action tomorrow. We are proud to stand alongside our members in support of maintaining the current net neutrality rules, and we will be spreading the word about this important issue on Wednesday as well.

The FCC will be accepting initial comments on net neutrality through July 17th. After this first phase, there is a second phase for filing reply comments where you can voice support or disagreement on specific comments, and this period ends August 16th.

We urge individuals and companies to submit comments to the FCC before July 17th explaining why they want the current net neutrality rules to stay the same. If enough companies and individuals raise their voice in support of preserving the rules, then we have a real chance to keep them in place.

A little more background: In late April, FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai announced plans to roll back the net neutrality protections implemented in 2015. These protections ensure that internet service providers (ISPs) treat all web traffic the same, no matter if it’s from a big company or a small one. Net neutrality also generally prevents throttling, blocking, and censoring of apps, sites, and services.

For more details, read our policy brief on net neutrality.