On Thursday, Free Press Action Vice President of Strategy and Senior Counsel Jessica J. González testified before the House of Representatives Subcommittee on Communications and Technology. Her testimony sought to explain how restoring net neutrality is crucial in order to remedy structural racism in communications.
“I’m also here as a Mexican-American woman from a working-class family. My father grew up in a Los Angeles suburb where there were no Mexicans allowed,” she said in her statement, “I understand that millions of people who came before me, including members of this House past and present, have fought against discrimination and for other causes that enabled me to be here today.”
Free Press is an advocacy group focused on media reform. The issue of net neutrality caught national attention following December 2017 rollbacks on Obama-era net neutrality protections. This, according to the ACLU, could result in the internet’s “risk of falling victim to the profit-seeking whims of powerful telecommunications giants.”
Advocates like González testified before Congress to protect net neutrality.
“The U.S. government has a long history of discrimination and racism. Indeed it used the media system to legitimize the enslavement of Black people, and the genocide and displacement of Native peoples,” she said. “And although it’s taken some steps to reduce racism and discrimination in certain aspects of American life, like housing, it’s done little to remedy structural racism in the communications sector.”
You can view her testimony here:
Her full written testimony can be found here:
