Dear Ms. Clyburn, Mr. O’Rielly, and Mr. Pai,

I am an internet user just like you. I check email, send a few tweets, shop on Amazon, watch enjoyable but stupid Youtube videos, and look up symptoms on WebMD when I get sick. As an internet user, I believe in privacy and the net neutrality protections currently in place.

With all due respect to Chairman Ajit Pai, his proposal to deregulate ISPs like Comcast, Spectrum, Frontier, AT&T, and his former place of business, Verizon, would effectively give them the legal latitude to create internet fast lanes and sell personal user data for the sole purpose of making them more money. They already charge users for internet service. To roll back the previous administration’s net neutrality protections and allow an ISP to then sell your private browsing history is both an invasion of privacy, and a crushing blow to small business owners who use the internet to make a living. Allowing ISPs to discriminate against certain types of data or websites, robs us all of innovation and a diverse Internet

At present, our current net neutrality rules ensure that Internet providers can’t slow or block our ability to see certain websites or create Internet “fast lanes” by charging websites and online service money to reach customers faster. Chairman Pai’s proposed repeal of the rules would transform ISPs into Internet gatekeepers with an effective veto right on innovation and expression. His op-ed that laughs at a digital dystopia and claims that the regulation has halted innovation is, at best, misinformed (see Freepress’ paper “It’s Working: How the Internet Access and Online Video Markets are Thriving in the Title II Era). Do you remember when Comcast and other ISPs charged Netflix a “toll” to deliver their streaming videos in 2014? I and the many other internet users do. This is no fantasy dreamed up by alarmists behind a computer screen. That happened, and corporations whose sole purpose is to seek profit should never be deemed to be the guardians of the public interest.

I plead for you to consider not just your party or corporate interests (I’m looking at you Chairman Pai) but the American people you serve and to keep Title II net neutrality in place.