AT&T is poised to buy Time Warner for $85 billion. If we let this happen, it will create a single, gargantuan Internet, TV and media monopoly.
That means higher prices, less choice, and even worse service.
This consolidation of power will be a total disaster for internet and TV users. Apart from paying more for a whole lot less, it could also lead to more predatory practices -- just last week AT&T was caught spying on Americans for profit.
We know we can stop it. After all, we did it the last time Big Telecom tried to put all the media power and profit in just a few hands -- when tens of thousands of SumOfUs supporters helped stop the Comcast-Time Warner merger.
Can you help do it again? There is no time to spare – we need to send a message today.
Tell regulators to stop the AT&T and Time Warner monster merger.
AT&T is the biggest provider of pay TV and Time Warner owns CNN, HBO and Warner Bros. Any of Time Warner’s competitors will find it suddenly a whole lot harder to get their content across AT&T’s massive wireless and broadband networks.
We've fought hard to stop Internet slow lanes in the past and there's no way we're going to let AT&T throttle any competing content provider while letting Time Warner products fly on through.
It will also make it a whole lot easier for AT&T to collect data from its consumers. AT&T was busted in 2013 for tracking every call, text or other communication going through its network since 1987 -- a database in the trillions bigger than anything the NSA has on Americans. And a recent investigation found that AT&T is not only handing over this information to law enforcement when it doesn't have to, it's profiting from our private data by selling its services to federal agencies.
This merger is bad for our privacy, bad for our pocketbooks and definitely bad for the Internet. Tell the regulators to stop it.
SumOfUs has been fighting for free speech and freedom of information and against disastrous corporate mergers since our inception. Our work for Net Neutrality helped keep the Internet open and accessible to dissenting voices and helped preserve the free exchange of information and ideas. Currently, we are doing all we can to stop the Monsanto and Bayer mega-merger that would put the control our food system to one giant corporation. Please take action now to stop another dangerous merger between AT&T and Time Warner.
More information
The Daily Beast. 24 October 2016.
LA Times. 24 October 2016.