Look to put 'viral' pressure on uncommitted Democrats

Net neutrality activists are planning a protest next week in advance of an expected vote on net neutrality rule legislation, including trying to make the live stream of the vote go viral.

Fight for the Future said it is expecting that the House Energy & Commerce Committee will schedule that markup on the Save the Internet Act as early as next week.

Related: FFTF Pledges District Call-Outs for Net Neutrality Bill No-Shows

If so, it wants to get out ahead of the vote to put pressure on Democrats still not on board. It created a widget that will allow Web sites to embed the live stream of the hearing on their home pages or blogs.

FFTF plans top put the stream on BattleForTheNet.com and will share it widely on social media.

It also said it plans to hold in-person protests at the district offices of four Democrats who have yet to co-sponsor the bill and a fifth that has indicated a willingness to compromise via amendments.

The Save the Internet Act would restore the Title II-based net neutrality rules rolled back by the FCC in December 2017. It is essentially a return of the Democratic effort in the last Congress to nullify that decision, only in this case by affirmatively restoring the previous Open Internet Order and its rules against blocking, throttling, paid prioritization and anything else the FCC concludes leads to a non-neutral net, at least in terms of access.