A coalition concerned with what they call “Internet freedom” collected more than 10,000 signatures from Maryland residents urging U.S.Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., to vote against a bill they say plays favorites with businesses.
“We want Senator Mikulski to know that 10,000 Maryland citizens want an Internet that works for everyone,” said Johanna Neumann, of the SavetheInternet.com coalition.
The Senate this month is expected to consider sweeping telecommunications legislation that would allow telephone and cable companies to act as gatekeepers to the Internet, activists said.
Under the bill, called the Communications Opportunity, Promotion, and Enhancement Act, these companies could decide which Web sites open quickly on individual computers based on which sites pay them the most, or have political views with which they agree, Neumann said.
Neumann and her colleagues want to find out Mikulski?s stance on the issue, but the senator could not be reached for comment.
Telephone and cable companies, such as AT&T, Verizon and Comcast, have spent millions of dollars lobbying Congress to pass the bill, activists said.
Activist Linda Black, owner of College Park Bicycles and Mount Airy Bicycles, said in a statement that passage of the bill would hurt small companies like hers.
Black said her businesses “depend on a neutral Internet, where the Web site of a small entrepreneur can be viewed just as easily as the site of a big corporation …”
AT A GLANCE
» SavetheInternet.com is a coalition of more than 750 groups, including groups as diverse as the conservative Christian Coalition and liberal MoveOn.
» The coalition collected more than 1 million petition signatures online nationally.
