Today is the last day to have your voice heard in the FCC's initial round of public comment on net neutrality. Many internet experts believe Tom Wheeler's proposal threatens the truly open internet we all know and love. The proposal tries to change the rules of the internet. Historically, internet access has always been neutral. Internet Service Providers (ISPs) did not block sites or engage in “technical discrimination,” treating traffic from some sites or applications better than others. They did not offer “paid prioritization” — fast lanes for those willing to pay extra. Up until this year, the FCC guaranteed net neutrality, but the new proposal would change that. Though it forbids outright blocking, it still permits technical discrimination and paid prioritization. It also permits ISPs to negotiate exclusive deals, offering only certain companies access to the fast lane, while relegating all of their competition to the slow lane. Finally, it has loopholes permitting access fees and discrimination through interconnection and mobile access.

Please support efforts to maintain a truly open internet. File a comment with the FCC and tell them to support reclassifying ISPs as Title II common carriers.

John Oliver presented this issue on his new show, Last Week Tonight, and encouraged viewers to "prevent cable company f@%kery" by commenting at http://www.fcc.gov/comments Over 647k comments have been submitted already.

In order to ensure accurate wording of an admittedly complex topic, this statement from Reddit was used as a reference resource.