Net neutrality activists to target lawmakers

A pro-net neutrality group plans to put up billboards around the U.S. attacking lawmakers who support the repeal of the Federal Communications Commission’s Obama-era rules.

Fight for the Future said Tuesday that it will crowdfund the campaign and has already raised $50,000. The billboards will begin going up in the coming weeks, it added.

“Internet users are pissed off and paying attention,” Evan Greer, the group’s campaign director, said in a statement. “Any lawmaker that stands idly by and allows the FCC to gut these basic free speech protections that people from across the political spectrum overwhelmingly support will be seen as an enemy of the Internet and an enemy of free speech.”

{mosads}Republican FCC Chairman Ajit Pai is pushing through a repeal of agency rules that prohibit internet service providers from blocking or throttling web content, or creating paid internet “fast lanes.”

Greer told The Hill that the billboard campaign will target those who have spoken in support of Pai’s effort and those who reportedly were involved in pressuring tech companies not to speak out against the repeal.

Greer said that the initial list of lawmakers who will be targeted includes Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.), Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).

A sample billboard features an image of Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.).

– This story was updated at 1:07 p.m. after Fight for the Future corrected their statement to The Hill.