Today Public Knowledge and The Harry Potter Association submitted net neutrality reply comments, representing over 14,000 video creators who are proud believers in an open internet. These signatures were collected through the launch of our website Video Creators for Net Neutrality.
The following can be attributed to Brynne Henn of Public Knowledge:
“After only a few weeks, the site has been overwhelmed with support for this action. Collectively, the video creators are responsible for videos viewed over 14 billion times worldwide. They have signed up to say in one voice: without net neutrality, they would not exist.
“The incredible responses to this site are exciting both for net neutrality and for the online video community. By putting their name on the site, the video creators are showing policy makers that an entire community and industry depends on and exists solely because they are allowed unfettered access to the internet. Video creators embody the idea that anyone with access to a camera and a computer can upload their videos, and within minutes share their thoughts, ideas and humor with the world. This website is one of the first times the video creator community has come together for one policy issue that directly affects them.
“Video Creators understand how important it is to keep the internet as an open and equal ground to express themselves. As Hank Green, creator of vlogbrothers and Crash Course said, “The open internet is the most fertile ground for art, industry, connection and creation that the world has ever known. Anything that threatens that genuinely terrifies me.”
“If the FCC does not support meaningful net neutrality rules by reclassifying internet access under Title II, the entire concept of online video creators will dwindle. In the current environment, creators only have to compete for a viewer’s attention span – they compete on the merits of their content alone. But if the proposed FCC rules were to be adopted they would have to compete with larger ISPs and established content companies to even reach their audience, much less accrue the degree of viral hits that catapult them to a place where they become legitimate alternative voices to traditional media creators. Access to internet should not be a barrier that many could not, and should not have to, overcome.”