The Hill By Harper Neidig - 07/06/17
A group of more than 100 YouTube stars is calling on the Federal Communications Commission to preserve its net neutrality rules, which are currently in the process of being repealed.
In an open letter posted on Thursday, 132 internet entertainers said that eliminating the rules could imperil their industry.
“Online video traffic already represents over 70% of all global web traffic and is estimated to grow to over 80% of all traffic by 2020,” the letter reads.
“Our rapidly growing industry employs hundreds of thousands of people and yet it barely existed more than a decade ago. As creators in this fast-moving industry, changes to the existing Net Neutrality rules would have an outsized impact on our field and jeopardize our livelihood.”
Among the acts signing the letter are Benny Fine of Fine Brothers Entertainment, a group that runs a popular comedy video channel on YouTube and other platforms. The Fine Brothers have 15.7 million subscribers on YouTube alone.
Also signing on to the letter is Dane Boedigheimer, whose web series the Annoying Orange has nearly 6 million Youtube subscribers.
All together, the signees reach a collective audience of 160.6 million people, according to the Internet Creators Guild, which organized the letter.
The letter is addressed to Republican FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, whose proposal to do away with the net neutrality rules’ legal framework is currently in a public comment period.
More:
http://thehill.com/policy/technology/340889-youtube-stars-call-on-fcc-to-preserve-net-neutrality-rules
