We have three weeks to save Net neutrality

The Federal Communications Commission will be voting on considering a proposal that would kill Net neutrality next month. Basically, Chairman Tom Wheeler (former telecomm CEO and lobbyist) has decided that Internet service providers (like Comcast or Verizon) will be able to charge content providers (like Microsoft or Google) for preferential treatment.

The big, rich companies can pay for high bandwidth, small companies like Daily Kos can't. We'll be left in the slow lane. The rules will say that ISP won't be allowed to deliberately slow down traffic from specific sites, but that's the only thing that would be left of the Net neutrality that has allowed the Internet to change the world.

Giving ISPs the power to demand pay-for-priority schemes would be disastrous for startups, nonprofits and small companies, not to mention everyday Internet users.

Help us stop the FCC from crushing Net neutrality. Please sign our petition.

3:08 PM PT: Thanks to all the commenters who note that the final vote on the rule isn't on May 15. But the FCC commissioners will decide at that meeting whether to essentially accept the proposal and put it out for public comment, or sink it and make Wheeler go back to the drawing board. We need to nip this proposal in the bud now.