Today by the fcc commission. Commissioners will meet later today and take up other issues as well. That meeting set for 10 30 eastern. Well keep it here live as the rally continues here on cspan 3 we are here because we thought the biggest would be to send to the voices of those most impacted and thats people of color. Thats people who are elderly, disabled, people depending on the internet. Today youll hear from voices from those dmcommunities. If thats all right let me hear you say internet freedom. When i say internet you say freedom. When i say you internet you say freedom. Internet, freedom. All right. So we are going to bring up our first speaker, yeah . There we go. They had me muted. Well kick it off here with those that cover a Broad Campaign and you saw how bill oreilly got kicked off of fox news. Lets bring up brandy collins. Good morning everyone. How are yall feeling . She said for her is a question. What are we missing . What are we excludeing . What stories should be told and by who . I started thinking if feminism is a way the internet has been like our answer. To have an open internet means finding power to create and share. The ability to connect to our families and to find our communities. In the purest form the power of the internet is ability to find dignity and humanity when others seek to take it away from us. People have come out to hear our stories. When they voted for Net Neutrality it is because they understood that it matters. It has been hard to witness that but when im out here with all of you i know we will not be silenced, we will keep fighting. We will not hand over our truth to corporate gate keepers. We have been in this field for dloes to a deca close to a decade. Well be here tomorrow and the day after that and day after that and day after that. We wont let our people tell us who sold out democratic principals and who sat on the sidelines. It is our duty to fight. It is our duty to win not just for ourselves but for our descendan descendants. Im grateful to keep fighting. We know that it goes on no matter what happens here today. Thank you again. [ cheers and applause ] give it up for brandy coll s collins. I fan out over this next speaker as well. Many years ago i heard her music and followed her. She wuasnt just an artist, but she isnt afraid to speak up and speak truth to power. Over the years she has done so many things, created web series and used all kinds of digital platforms. She is starring on hbos insecure. Who is watching insecure . If youre not watching her insta stories every morning please put your hands together for amanda seals. [ cheers and applause ] okay. Im clearly overdressed. I think its a great thing to see people continuously fighting for this. I think there arent enough people fighting for it. I know for me the internet has been able to change my life by having this free forum to be able to speak. It is supposedly what this country is all about, right . Youre supposed to be able to speak freely. The problem is that when we start putting dollar signs on that we are limiting the ability to give and receive information. I think all of us here know that knowledge is what . So if only a certain people have access to knowledge that means only certain number of people have access to what . Power. When people are here keeping you disempowered, unimpowered, lack of powered, nonpowered. Lets make it all up. We have to speak up. I feel like there are people that will say why bother . Why show up . Why say anything . If that was the case we would be drinking from fountains that say colored and white people. If that was the case we wouldnt have title 9 in place. If that was the case we would be saying we have to deal with that. This is the thing. We dont deal with [ bleep ]. We speak up, say what we need to do and do what we need do. Im so glad we are here and challenging this absolutely absurd idea that is being put into practice. What i hope happens is no matter what happens we dont stop speaking, we dont stop challenging this and we find ways to challenge it that are not only individual but are on a bigger scale and eventually shut it all down. All right . [ cheers and applause ] so i am going to pass the mic to whom . We are doing a lot of passing the mic today. I want to thank everybody here who is a part of helping this internet be actually something that is not just a place for internet girls, internet models and hip hop videos. I feel like what we are able to with access to the interflet inte internet we are able to have a wide array of entertainment and art and creativity and of voices. As a black woman in this country the internet allowed me to have my own story, to have my own voice and to no longer simply have to be at the whim of gate keepers who have no interest in what i have to say. We have to continue to have a space for other individuals who are living that same life to be able to do that, whether they are black women, black men, where they are white women who did not vote for roy moore. In general there needs to be a space for those who speak out, for those who are different and for those who are dhchallenging. I hope all of us continue that fight until we get the victory. So i am amanda seals. [ cheers and applause ] i be on this internet every day, every day. What you can know is whatever i say is coming from an authentic place. Lets keep this wake up call going and wake these fools up, yall. [ cheers and applause ]. Thank you so much. I cant wait for season three. All right yall. Lets keep it moving. Lets do a little chanting. When i say internet yall say freedom. Internet. Dprfreedom. Internet. Freedom. All right. My former congressman, i used to live in his district. Hi is someone that any time we are talking about justice his name pops up. Lets give it up for Keith Ellison. [ cheers and applause ] you know you guys, its about power. We are talking about power today. Will the republicans and all of those guys turn the power over to the monopolous. Are we going to standby and let them do this . Are we going to demand that the public internet be in service to the public . What about that . [ cheers and applause ] these are our air bawaves. The internet should be open to the public. Im telling you right now if we mobilize ourselves, if we never stop fighting we will win this victory. [ cheers and applause ] the biggest enemy we have is if we decide those people are too powerful, the big Internet Service providers are too powerful. They are not powerful. We are powerful. They dhave any strength they hae based on what we allow. I want to say to you this, that whats going on here is they have saying if they allow the fcc allows big corporations to control and maximize profit and create fast lanes then they will take some of the extra money they make their monopoly profits and might open up opportunities for people that dont have them. When has that ever happened . They say if you give the rich folks more tax cuts they will use it to sprinkle down on the rest of us. Has that ever happened . No. They will use the extra money to look after us. Has that ever happened . No. They are doing this so they are reap more profit, give themselves more bonuses. It is to screw the American People and we are not going to stand by for it. Bea we are going to stand here and fight back and never give up, keep it up. Lets go fight for our open internet everybody. [ cheers and applause ] thank you. All right. Yall, lets keep it moving. We were out here three years ago fighting for Net Neutrality before the rules were passed. There was another thing brewing out in ferguson. Ferguson became a flash point around Police Violence in the country. It became the platform for the Movement Like blank livck livesr to go from a hash tag to a movement. We are bringing up a codirector about the philadelphfilm. Check it out. Lets give it up, damon davis. [ cheers and applause ] whats up . How are yall doing today . So, yeah, im from a small place in the middle of the country called st. Louis, illinois. I dont know if yall have heard over that. People rarely Pay Attention to how we are living. So a couple of years back a kid was kill and we all went into the street to get justice for him. We wouldnt have been able to get any attention on it and nobody would have known what happened to us after the protest started without a Free Internet. We wouldnt know about uprisings in other countries. Nobody would know about places like st. Louis, things of that nature and the things they did to us without a Free Internet. Before i made this movie this year i actually came here. Free press brought me here to talk about this specific thing. I remember it was a hard concept for many we to grasp in the beginning until i realized that it wasnt just about having to pay a little more for netflix or get charged to tweet wiand thin of that nature. Thats one thing. Imagine if they turned the news off. Imagine if they blacked us out when ferguson was happening. So for all of the people that arent on the coast and the people that get forgotten a lot, i just want yall to know this is a big issue where we come from. So understand that i stand with you and everybody that i come from is worried about this and we are thinking about it. The real question is what are we fi fixing to do now . Thank you for letting me speak today. I appreciate it. Keep up the good fight. Peace peace. Thank you david. This is the fight right here. All right. Coming up next we have more congressional champions coming up here. Next up is congressman jose sorano. Good morning. Now, you can tell that congressman Keith Ellison is from minnesotame. He came up with a jacket and a tie. Im from new york. I know on the grand concourse between two buildings when the wind blows it is as cold as in minnesota. I can do this in two sentences but i wont because youll be disappointed because i didnt say a few more words. It is the internet, not the elite net. It is supposed to be for all people. People get their information from it. It has to be open to everyone. Now, i represent a community of African Americans and folks from africa and other countries like that and other continents like africa. One of the things i noticed is that every day more and more and more and more people at senior centers, in hospitals, in air i cant say areas of recreation and to be at times entertained. They can find movies and information they havent seen for years. They remember from their youth and so on. Remember what youre fighting for here. Youre not fighting a fight against corporations. Youre fighting against corporations for the people who dont have a voice. You are their voice. This is why youre here today. I want you to say it after me. Its the internet. Its the sbeinternet. Not the elite net. Its not for some people. When i was on the appropriations subcommittee to handlefcc i made sure it would allow this not to happen and moving towards where we are today at this point. We are not defeated yet, my friends. One thing i learned is whatever puts out in law and regulations can hear an outcry from the people and theres a turnaround. This is what we need to do. We need to educate our community. We need to let them know of the importance of the internet belonging to everyone. I close with this. When it was created, when it began to take off it was understood that it would serve and service all people. It is not for the big money grubbers now to determine who is going to have access, who is going to have information, who is going to have knowledge, who is going have education. No. It belongs to you just like this country belongs to you, just like the flag belongs to you. Dont let anybody take any of those things away from you. They belong to all of you. [ cheers and applause ] so this stands with you. Wow. I have never been hit that hard in the south bronx. Ill speak from here. Im a tough guy. Where was i . Lastly, its not just the internet. Its not Net Neutrality. There is a lot in this country where they are saying that flag is mine, not yours. This country is mine, not yours. This immigration policy is mine, not yours. Thats not true. It belongs to all of us and make sure that you stand up for it even if you have to get pushed off a stage. Dont worry about it. All i got from that, my friends was a boost to go further. I found out that when you push me off a stage i still know how to speak afterwards. Thank you so much. [ cheers and applause ] one last comment. In spanish we have a saying [ speaking Foreign Language ] tell me who you walk with and ill tell you who you are. I walk with you. You walk with me. We are togetherme. We are one. We shall not be defeated. Thank you. Thank you so much. Got to get you to stretch later, stretch that out. That was quite the wake up call with this big alarm clock. All right. Well keep it rolling to the next congressional champion. Shout out to seattle. We have one seattle person. If youre on the live stream you can shout out too. Lets bring her up. Jamila. Hello. I have been an organize other all my life, a sicivil rights advocate. We have had a lot worse than clocks falling over on us on the stage. The internet is not just the internet. It is about our democracy, ensuring access for people across this country to be able to work, to be able to organize, to be able to fight for justice. If you think about black lives matter, if you think about every social movement if this country that has been able to use the internet and think about what they are trying to do to silence our voices there is one answer and we are hell no. We are not going to let you change this rule. If they need to bring out dead people to submit comments on this rule then you know they are nervous about the power that we have. Lets be very clear about what this rule would mean for communities of color across the country. We already flow that the lack of access to the internet and communities of color is substantial. We know black and brown communities, Rural Communities across this country are suffering, cant get jobs, cant get access to the information and all this will do because im on the judiciary hearing, and i can tell you, there was not one argument that was made for why we need to change these rules, why would we give all of the power to a quasi monopoly that can throttle and block the content. Will is one reason and that is because they want to make more money. Thats all this is about. It is not right and we are going to fight and we need you in this fight. I want to say thank you because they think that this might be over if they vote on it today. Let me ask you, is it going to be over . No. Are we going to force them if they take this vote . First of all, they should not take this vote. They should not take this vote. Even republicans are saying that this is the wrong vote to take. So they should delay this vote. Even if they think they are going to steam roll us today we are going to fight and we are going to win because this is ththe era of the people. We the people are going to rise up to protect the internet and Net Neutrality. I want to say that we are going to win, just like we did in alabama, just like we did in virginia. We are going to win. Thank you all so much. [ cheers and applause ] if youre feeling cold make some noise. Cau [ cheers and applause ]. What helps is to get your body moving. We will take a three minute musical break. I want to see people moving out here. We have the they are gone . They are gone. Oh no. So we are going to play some music here off of the mixer and give you a three minute break and then well keep it rolling. How is everyone feeling . [ cheers and applause ] i know youre cold so i will help you out. Let me get people to come in a little bit. I used to sing in a gogo band. What we do is we say get close to the stage, get close to each other. Bring it in, bring it in, bring it in. Come on. Lets get close. We are here to save the internet. We are here to save the internet. [ cheers and applause ] im about to bring someone to the stage who is a long time vocal i cant oeceven think a word to describe her for ber kne internet freedom. [ cheers and applause ] good morning Net Neutrality spoe supporters. How are you doing out here . [ cheers and applause ] so we are next to a place that will make a significant decision today. But we are next door to people who speak for those who reck g recognize that equality over the internet is our right. [ cheers and applause ] now, if i were to base succe success or the art of justice on one vote today i would be short sited and sad. While i must admit im outraged about what we are poised to do i know in my heart of hearts that the millions of people that recognize the power, the poe n potential we have is our number one priority today, i am here to tell you that in the long run we will be victorious. [ cheers and applause ] now, im going to yield my time to some how makers who have got your back, but what i will say to you, a lot of people are questioning, just what is Net Neutrality . I have a mom who says im not sure what it all is but you do what you think is right. Mom, im doing what i think is right. [ cheers and applause ] and what is right is what i heard summed up yesterday when i was on a radio show. He said commissioner, im hearing everything you say but you know what this is about . This is about internet equality. This is about internet equality, and youve got two people that will sit in those chairs today. They will be your voices for internet equality. You have got a court system, congress people, millionsov of people who are in your corner and we will achieve internet equality. Internet equality. Net neutrality. We will win at the end of the day. Tha thank you very much. Cause chauz [ cheers and applause ]. Thank you so much. Give it up for commissioner. [ cheers and applause ] she did something this summer and continues to do something that others inside that building have not done. She listens to the people. She was in los angeles, atlanta hearing about the impact of Net Neutrality. It is a crying shame it is being pushed by those who have not gone out and listened to the public. The public is here today to make sure they hear our voices. The next person i will bring up is another longtime champion. You need to Pay Attention to who the members of congress are who are calling for a stop to this vote, calling for current Net Neutrality rules. I have from massachusetts senator winan who will come up and talk about Net Neutrality. When i made that quick turn it was my brain falling out of my right h