In the US, July 4 is a day when we celebrate our independence from colonial rule. Many other countries around the world, including Canada, France, Belgium, Belarus, Egypt, Liberia, Mongolia, Columbia, Venezuela, Peru, Palau, and the Bahamas, also celebrate significant events for their independence in July. It seems fitting, then, that this year on July 12, we are called to action for what could be another important date for independence—this time, the independence of the web.

The Power of the Web

The Internet has transformed how the world communicates, spreading access and power from the few to the many—the power to learn from distant sources, to speak and be heard, to innovate and find success, to collaborate and exceed the sum of our parts. Key to that power is the principle of net neutrality: that companies and governments that provide access to the Internet must treat all data equally, without discrimination or preferential treatment.

At Netlify, spreading the power of the web is essential to our mission. We want the web to win, and we build tools to make it easier for anyone to make their corner of the web just as fast, secure, and scalable as you’ll find from major industry leaders. If Internet providers can throttle speeds and redirect traffic to preferred content, this undermines that power and goes counter to everything we’re about.

A Threat to Progress

In the past several years, the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has made great strides in protecting net neutrality. These gains were helped in no small part by web-wide efforts to spread awareness and inspire record-breaking millions to stand up for their right to share and access information of their choosing without interference.

However, recent events threaten this progress. In May, newly appointed FCC Chairperson Ajit Pai proposed to reverse the net neutrality provisions we worked so hard to achieve, opening a public comment period that completes its first round on July 17. Now is the time when our voices can make a difference. The Internet has come together before to defend net neutrality, and we can do it again.

A Call to Action

To generate as many comments as possible before the close of the first round, leaders, organizations, and everyday webmakers across the Internet are rallying behind Battle for the Net, calling for an Internet-Wide Day of Action to Save Net Neutrality on Wednesday, July 12.

On July 12, sites across the web will display an alert to show what the web might look like without net neutrality. The alert includes an easy way for visitors to submit their comments directly to the FCC and Congress.

Answering the Call

Netlify is joining the effort, and we hope you will, too! We’re enabling the alert on this site, along with others we have created, including netlifycms.org, staticgen.com, headlessCMS.org, and jamstack.org.

Battle for the Net has provided a script that anyone can use to add the alert to their site, and we’ve decided to make it even easier for Netlify customers to participate. We’ve taken our built-in script injection feature one step further, allowing you to add the alert with a single click:

You'll find this at the top of the settings page for each of your sites on Netlify. You can add the alert to your Netlify site now, and it will go live on July 12, displaying once for each visitor to your site. After that, we'll automatically remove it, or you can go back to the settings yourself and remove it earlier.

Add your voice to the global conversation, help raise awareness for your visitors, and maybe, influence the future of the web!