Hero bicyclist narrows streets near FCC and offers drivers $5 "Priority Access" so drivers can "choose the plan that best suits their needs"

from Boing Boing:

An act of heroic trolling from Net Neutrality advocate Rob Bliss, who "throttled" access to DC's 12th Street by traffic-coning all but one lane, then cycled slowly up and down the remaining lane with a sign offering drivers "priority access" to his "fast lane" for $5/month.

Bliss was making a pointed statement about Trump FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, who insisted that he alone could see the looming problem of network management that could only be fixed by allowing ISPs to use their publicly subsidized infrastructure to limit who could get to the network services they wanted to visit.

Bliss told The Next Web that his performance was accomplished thanks to the admirable forebearance of the DC cops who have "a lot of great training and also experience due to frequent interactions with nonviolent protestors."

Net Neutrality is a huge issue, it has the ability to shape how we think and see the world. The fact that it hasn’t really been well understood by the public is very concerning and what I was trying to address. By bringing internet traffic to real world traffic, a lot of the issues become immediately apparent. In the video I play the role of the ISP, and everyone’s response proves how society would never allow such behavior in the real world. So why should we allow it online?

Net neutrality activist ‘throttles’ street traffic outside FCC building [Tristan Greene/The Next Web]

(via Naked Capitalism)

Mike D for Net Neutrality In A Big Way

The Beastie Boys' Michael "Mike D" Diamond is part of an AT&T investor group seeking to put a net neutrality question on the shareholder ballot: "The shareholder resolution would recommend each company 'publicly commit to operate its wireless broadband network consistent with network neutrality principles,' the letter said. The companies should not discriminate based on the “source, ownership or destination” of data sent over their wireless infrastructure." (from BoingBoing via Consumerist)