Net neutrality supporters plan crowdfunded billboard spotlighting California lawmaker who gutted SB 822

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 26, 2018
Contact: Evan Greer, press@fightforthefuture.org, 978-852-6457

Los Angeles, CA -– Net Neutrality supporters launched a crowdfunding page Wednesday to  collect donations to put up a giant billboard in the district of California Assemblymember Miguel Santiago, who became internet infamous last week for eviscerating the California net neutrality bill SB 822, leaving it full of loopholes demanded by ISPs. Before the amendments, SB 822 was the only state level bill to restore all of the net neutrality protections that FCC repealed on June 11.

See the crowdfunding page, and a mock-up of the billboard, here: https://donate.fightforthefuture.org/campaigns/santiago/#page-1

Santiago, who counts AT&T and other ISPs among his top donors, is the chairman of the Communications and Conveyance Committee. In an extremely undemocratic hearing last week, he used his powers as chair to  force a vote on his hostile amendments, refusing to allow testimony or public comment before the vote.

The billboard campaign is backed by Fight for the Future, a digital rights group with more than 350,000 members in California.

“It’s honestly a shame that we have to expend our members’ energy and resources fighting a California Democrat like Miguel Santiago, who should be representing his constituents and supporting real net neutrality legislation rather than listening to lobbyists from AT&T, one of his top donors,” said Evan Greer, Deputy Director of Fight for the Future. “Unfortunately, Assemblyman Santiago is acting just like California’s own Ajit Pai. He says he supports net neutrality while actively working to dismantle it. He needs to fix the harm he caused, and this crowdfunded billboard will ensure that his constituents know what he is doing in their name.”

California State Senator Scott Wiener, the original author of SB 822, has said that he is working with Santiago in an attempt to restore the crucial protections that were stripped from the bill. Fight for the Future hopes that Santiago helps restore all the protections and that the billboard will prove unnecessary, in which case the funds raised with be used for other net neutrality activism.

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