The Federal Communications Commission will closing its commenting period on May's ruling on net neutrality at Friday midnight, Eastern time. If you're concerned about broadband companies charging websites in exchange for faster service lanes, effectively ending the democratic Internet, now's a good time to let them know.
Earlier this year, FCC Chairman (and former telecomm lobbyist!) Tom Wheeler proposed new rules that would allow websites to strike "commercially reasonable" deals with broadband companies—meaning websites with cash to burn can obtain faster streaming service, while those that don't will be trapped in the slow lane.
The FCC voted to advance that proposal in May, and offered up a comment period that was set to expire on Tuesday; they extended that period to midnight on July 18th thanks to the sheer volume of comments. As of noon today, they'd received 1,030,000 submissions. These included comments from big companies like Comcast and Netflix, the latter of which blasted Wheeler's proposal, noting "No rules would be better than rules legalizing discrimination on the Internet."
You can leave a comment on the FCC's website, or you can email the FCC at [email protected]. Once the commenting period closes, a full commission will vote on the proposal before the end of the year. And for a more entertaining look at how the death of net neutrality will negatively effect the Internet, here's John Oliver: