Today Is a Big Day for the Internet

Today Is a Big Day for the Internet

Today, a coalition of activists beat the well-funded cable lobby as the FCC voted to use Title II reclassification to preserve net neutrality.

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The FCC voted today to protect net neutrality, and to use Title II reclassification (exactly what open Internet advocates have been demanding) to ensure that it sticks. That means that the Internet will remain an open playing field—no slow lanes and no fast lanes—where small non-profits, every-day people and independent media outlets like The Nation can compete against multi-billion dollar corporate giants.

A hearty congratulations is due to the organizers at Fight for the Future, Free Press, OpenMedia, ColorofChange, the Voices for Internet Freedom Coalition, the Center for Media Justice, the Media Action Grassroots Network, Demand Progress and the many other groups who have been at the forefront of this crucial fight.

Our own readers have also continually stood up for the open Internet. Over the past year, Nation readers sent thousands of comments to the FCC. When Congress threatened to get in the way just as the FCC was coming down on our side, they wrote to their elected officials. Finally, this past week they submitted messages and photos to be streamed on a giant Jumbotron right outside the FCC’s headquarters (you can check out some of those messages here).

TO DO

Now that we’ve won, our friends at OpenMedia are using the net neutrality Jumbotron to stream celebratory messages and photos from this past year’s organizing. Click here to send along a quick message of support.

TO READ

Although today is a big deal, we can’t afford to be complacent. John Nichols outlines the challenges that lie ahead to make sure that net neutrality is here to stay.

TO WATCH

Check out Fight for the Future’s video of highlights from this year’s activism.

We cannot back down

We now confront a second Trump presidency.

There’s not a moment to lose. We must harness our fears, our grief, and yes, our anger, to resist the dangerous policies Donald Trump will unleash on our country. We rededicate ourselves to our role as journalists and writers of principle and conscience.

Today, we also steel ourselves for the fight ahead. It will demand a fearless spirit, an informed mind, wise analysis, and humane resistance. We face the enactment of Project 2025, a far-right supreme court, political authoritarianism, increasing inequality and record homelessness, a looming climate crisis, and conflicts abroad. The Nation will expose and propose, nurture investigative reporting, and stand together as a community to keep hope and possibility alive. The Nation’s work will continue—as it has in good and not-so-good times—to develop alternative ideas and visions, to deepen our mission of truth-telling and deep reporting, and to further solidarity in a nation divided.

Armed with a remarkable 160 years of bold, independent journalism, our mandate today remains the same as when abolitionists first founded The Nation—to uphold the principles of democracy and freedom, serve as a beacon through the darkest days of resistance, and to envision and struggle for a brighter future.

The day is dark, the forces arrayed are tenacious, but as the late Nation editorial board member Toni Morrison wrote “No! This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.”

I urge you to stand with The Nation and donate today.

Onwards,

Katrina vanden Heuvel
Editorial Director and Publisher, The Nation

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