Hispanic Technology and Telecommunications Partnership Perspective
HTTP and its member organizations have been actively engaged in efforts to eliminate a digital divide that is in part responsible for the continued marginalization of the most vulnerable segments of the Latino community. The net neutrality debate is very important to Hispanics / Latinos. The advancement of Latino and other disadvantaged communities in these difficult economic times will depend on greater access to online information, services and applications.
We have observed that current discourse about net neutrality has been dominated by mainstream consumer advocates and the technology and telecommunications policy elite, groups that are least familiar and least equipped to discuss the perspectives of communities on the wrong side of the digital divide. Because of this, HTTP urges the FCC to more proactively incorporate non-traditional perspectives and data as it works create policy that will directly affect broadband deployment and adoption by minority communities.
We ask the FCC to consider and discuss with minority stakeholders how a set of principles that are neutral at face value may have unintended negative consequences for vulnerable populations. When it comes to policy decisions regarding net neutrality, HTTP believes that the future of our communities is at stake as much as the future of the Internet.