Ahead of a crucial vote that threatens the future of the Internet “as we know it” at the Federal Communications Commission scheduled for Thursday, defenders of net neutrality overnight went to the commission’s headquarters in Washington, DC where they projected various messages—including “Property of Verizon”—on the building to draw attention to the corporate interests at play behind the proposal by FCC chairman Aijit Pai, a former lobbyist who worked for the telecom giant.
Just last week, Pai was the keynote speaker at a corporate forum held at Verizon headquarters and earlier this week he reportedly joked at a dinner event about “being a puppet” for his former employer.
While Pai has tried to characterize net neutrality—a concept that is foundational and essential if the Internet is to remain a digital bastion of free-flowing ideas and information unencumbered by corporate manipulation and mastery—as a heavey-handed “regulatory burden” of government, that claim has been endlessly debunked and discredited.
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