Demand Progress: T-Mobile violates Net Neutrality

For possibly the first time since the FCC adopted Net Neutrality last year, an ISP has been caught red-handed breaking the law.1 

T-Mobile is throttling video content from select websites as part of their new "Binge On" feature, and when confronted about it, T-Mobile's CEO lashed out at internet freedom activists, asking "Who the f*ck are you?" and "Who pays you?"2

It's clear T-Mobile has no shame about violating Net Neutrality. And if the FCC doesn't crack down, other companies are sure to follow their lead. 
 

Here's what’s happening: Late last year, T-Mobile automatically enrolled all their users in a service they're calling Binge On, which allows users to watch video from certain select websites, like Netflix, without counting against their data cap. 

The problem is that sites not enrolled in Binge On, like YouTube and Vimeo, not only count against the data cap but are being pushed onto a data slow lane, causing buffering and poor playback.3 

This is a clear, systematic violation of the Net Neutrality rules we fought so hard for. And it's one of the first big tests of whether Net Neutrality will actually be enforced—or will exist only on paper.

We're launching an urgent push to demand the FCC take swift action to crack down on T-Mobile. Will you donate?


Thanks for taking action on this at a critical time. 

David, Daniel, Kurt, Mark, Sara, Victoria, and the rest of the Demand Progress Team


Sources:

1. T-Mobile 'breaks' net neutrality rules with Binge On, BBC News, January 5, 2016 

2. Twitter blows up after T-Mobile CEO drops anti-eff f-bomb, Wired, January 7, 2016

3. EFF Confirms: T-Mobile’s Binge On Optimization is Just Throttling, Applies Indiscriminately to All Video, Electronic Frontier Foundation, January 4, 2016

Negotiators shilling for corporations have just reached a final deal on the Trans-Pacific Partnership

Negotiators shilling for corporations have just reached a final deal on the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Will you chip in $5 to help stop Congress from ratifying this awful deal? 



Breaking news: Negotiators and lobbyists meeting in secret have just reached a final agreement on the massive Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).1

The TPP is the biggest corporate trade deal in world history—slashing protections against Wall Street recklessness and for Internet freedom across a whopping 40 percent of the world's economy.

The TPP deal now goes to the U.S. Congress, where bipartisan opposition to the deal has been growing. We're launching a huge campaign to stop the TPP from passing Congress. Will you chip in $5?

Yes, I'll donate $5 to help stop the Trans-Pacific Partnership. 

Even though the deal is being reported as final, the public STILL has not be shown the text of the agreement. Members of Congress are being asked to take a position on a deal that is literally sealed behind closed doors. 

What do know about the TPP has come from leaks released by organizations like WikiLeaks, and it's frankly outrageous. 

The draft TPP would sneak in SOPA-like attacks on Internet freedom, overturn protections against Wall Street recklessness, and allow corporations to sue sovereign nations to overturn the decisions of democratically elected officials.2

The corporate supporters of this deal say it's about promoting "free trade," but there's actually nothing free about it. The TPP is all about rigging the rules of the game in favor of big corporations against the environment, workers, and consumers.

The reason we can stop this bill is that it's not just liberal Democrats who oppose it—conservatives and Tea Party activists hate it too. In the last few weeks, presidential candidates from Bernie Sanders to Donald Trump have condemned the TPP, and if enough of us speak out, we can stop this deal cold.

Click here to donate $5 and help stop the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Thanks for standing with us. 

David, Daniel, Kurt, Mark, Sara, Victoria and the rest of the Demand Progress team

I'll chip in $5

---

Sources:

1. Trans-Pacific Partnership Trade Deal Is Reached, The New York Times, October 5, 2015

2. Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP): Job Loss, Lower Wages and Higher Drug Prices, accessed October 5, 2015

---

PAID FOR BY DEMAND PROGRESS (DemandProgress.org) 

Under a cloak of darkness

Yesterday, legislation was introduced in Congress that purports to rein in the NSA’s mass surveillance programs. It’s called the USA FREEDOM Act (as was a similar bill last year), and we don’t think that it goes far enough.

USA FREEDOM might do something very modest to constrain the NSA's behavior under the particular authorities that that agency has exploited to collect information about all of Americans’ phone calls.

But it also does some definitively terrible things, like giving companies immunity for facilitating government spying — and extending the very authority the NSA has manipulated to engage in mass surveillance.

Moreover, it doesn’t address the fundamental problem: That the NSA is a rogue agency that operates under a cloak of darkness without meaningful oversight or checks on its power, and will lie and violate the law with impunity.

Even if the NSA’s ability to spy on us is constrained slightly, for now, we can expect it to do all in its power to warp the law — and torture the English language — to find justifications for ever more-expansive surveillance.

And because oversight is so limited, because Congressional leadership and the House and Senate Intelligence Committees are so captured by the surveillance agencies and contractors, we won’t even find out about the NSA’s new schemes until another whistleblower surfaces in 10 or 20 years.

To learn more about why we are opposing this bill, you can read our press release about USA FREEDOM here.

Here's where you come in: Time is running out — a committee vote on USA FREEDOM is expected TOMORROW.

If you agree with our take on the USA FREEDOM Act, can you make a call to your member of Congress and ask them to oppose USA FREEDOM because it doesn't go far enough — and to support key amendments to make it better?

Yes, I'll make a call to my member of Congress.

No, I don't have time to make a call — but I'll click here and chip in $10 to help Demand Progress in this fight.

Thanks for standing strong.

—David, Daniel, Mark, Sara and the rest of the Demand Progress team

DONATE

---

PAID FOR BY DEMAND PROGRESS (DemandProgress.org) and not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee. Contributions are not deductible as charitable contributions for federal income tax purposes.

Friday, September 19th, Citizens Rising: A Republic Held Hostage and the Plan to Take It Back

Just a reminder that you're invited to attend the MIT Anti-corruption Symposium, Citizens Rising: A Republic Held Hostage and the Plan to Take It Back, to be held on Friday, September 19th, 2014, 6-9PM at Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Kresge Auditorium.

This symposium is being sponsored by the MIT student chapter of The High Impact Network (THINK), an organization promoting effective altruism. The primary goals of the event are to educate the public about the corrupting influence that money has on our representative democracy, and to inspire civic engagement by offering examples of, and opportunities for, participation in meaningful reform efforts.

We seek to answer the all too common question: “What am I going to do about it?”

The conference’s featured speakers are Harvard Law Professor Lawrence Lessig and Princeton University Professor Martin Gilens.

And participating organizations include Common Cause, Democracy Matters, Represent.Us, Move to Amend, and NH Rebellion. Through speaker presentations, an interactive Q&A, and collaborative interactions with different organizations, all seeking the common goal of ending our current system of legalized political corruption, Citizens Rising will educate, inspire intelligent dialogue that critically analyzes existing reform proposals, and provide a platform for expressing innovative solutions.

Collaboration across a spectrum of organizations will be needed to realize an unstoppable anti-corruption movement. Join us on Friday, September 19th and let’s make it a reality.

To learn more information and to register for this free event, please visit the conference’s website.

If you would like to interact with the organizers via social media, please visit our Facebook and Twitter accounts.

And please forward this invitation far and wide.

Thanks.

-Demand Progress and Rootstrikers

Paid for by Demand Progress (DemandProgress.org) and not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee. Contributions are not deductible as charitable contributions for federal income tax purposes.

One last thing -- Demand Progress's small, dedicated, under-paid staff relies on the generosity of members like you to support our work. Will you click here to chip in $5 or $10? Or you can become a Demand Progress monthly sustainer by clicking here. Thank you!