ISPs surprise net neutrality fans on protest day
NEW YORK (AP) — AT&T has a surprise for tech firms and internet activists supporting net neutrality, the principle that bars internet service providers from playing favorites with websites and apps.
Tim Karr, the campaign director for Free Press, an advocacy group that supports net neutrality, slammed the ISPs for "simply attempting to fake the funk, pretending to support net neutrality while opposing the (FCC) rules that make it an enforceable reality."
Internet activists and tech firms hope that the protest will pressure Congress and the FCC, the way a highly visible 2012 online protest — including the blackout of Wikipedia's English-language site for 24 hours — helped kill anti-piracy legislation that tech companies equated to internet censorship.