LOS ANGELES — On Wednesday night, in a packed room at the Los Angeles Community Action Network in the city’s Skid Row neighborhood, Voices for Internet Freedom hosted a public forum with FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn to hear from community members about the need for affordable internet access and other communication services.

The forum took place ahead of a May 18 meeting at the Federal Communications Commission where FCC Chairman Ajit Pai will put forward a proposal to gut open-internet protections and end Net Neutrality. Chairman Pai’s proposal also threatens Lifeline broadband, which makes internet access more affordable for poor people.

The forum was presented by the Voices for Internet Freedom Coalition — led by the Center for Media Justice, Color Of Change, Free Press and the National Hispanic Media Coalition — along with 18 Million Rising and Common Cause. Voices organizes and advocates for the digital rights of people of color.

Formerly and currently unhoused residents of Los Angeles shared testimonies that shined a light on voices not often heard in policy debates around internet and phone access. Susan Price, formerly unhoused, noted, “I wouldn’t have even found [a homeless] shelter, if it hadn’t been for the internet” she was able to access at public libraries. General Jeff Page, formerly unhoused and now a resident in Skid Row, addressed the discrepancy between proposed solutions to communications access and the reality of impacted community members’ needs.

Marco Castro Bohorquez, a health and wellness activist who is currently unhoused, shared that the internet allowed him to find mental-health experts in places ranging from Fresno, California, to Argentina, where he discovered “culturally relevant care that I wanted and that I deserve.”

Student Britney Galindo and fifth-grade teacher Melissa Baranic spoke to the ways an unaffordable internet disadvantages Black and Latinx students. “The digital divide is based on income,” said Baranic.

Senior citizens Lourdes Pablo and Takouie Daglian emphasized how an unaffordable internet impacts their ability to communicate with loved ones and to find work. Daglian is a subscriber to Lifeline, which serves families in need. Through a translator, Daglian noted that the program “is a very big help for her” as it enables her to stay in touch with her children and her doctor. Pablo reiterated the need for an affordable internet, saying, “If only we can have internet access at a low rate, it would be of great help to us.”

A panel of organizers, researchers and artists closed the night by sharing the practical ways in which the internet makes their livelihoods and movement building possible. Denise Cortes, a Southern California artist, blogger and owner of PearMama.com, underscored that her livelihood and ability to care for her six children depends on access to an affordable, open internet that allows her to compete with larger blogs.

Taz Ahmed, an activist with 18 Million Rising, Tia Oso, a national organizer with the Black Alliance for Just Immigration, and Sylvia Moore, Southern California organizer for California Common Cause, discussed how the internet makes their organizing work possible, and explored how the internet has created a space for marginalized communities to come together. “With the internet … we create our own space when no one else is providing that for us,” said Ahmed.

Oso agreed, noting, “Being able to send a tweet, being able to communicate via technology and mobile technology via Whatsapp, are both important for advocacy and organizing work, and also are how our communities stay in touch with one another across different countries.”

Hernan Galperin, an associate research professor at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, reminded the audience that digital inequalities are more than meet the eye, even in metropolitan regions, as he shared that 50,000 people in the Los Angeles area do not have broadband access.

“I’m thrilled to have joined community leaders and public-interest advocates in the Los Angeles area for a conversation aimed at closing the digital-and-opportunities divide,” said FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn. “Today far too many Americans are being left behind when it comes to their ability to access affordable communications services. This public forum will better inform my work at the Commission and ensure we are doing everything we can to advance competition and consumer choice for all Americans.”

“The decisions that the Federal Communications Commission makes in Washington, D.C., have a real and lasting effect on communities around the country,” said National Hispanic Media Coalition President and CEO Alex Nogales. “Chairman Pai’s proposals to dismantle Net Neutrality and the Lifeline program would leave millions without the ability to communicate online. We appreciate that Commissioner Clyburn has come to hear us in Los Angeles and learn about the ways in which access to communication services is vital to Angelenos and all Americans across the nation if we are to continue to thrive in the 21st century.”

“This event helped to provide a face to an often unseen reality of an internet and phone service whose cost is just too high,” said Steven Renderos, organizing director at the Center for Media Justice. “Communities of color and poor communities have absolutely everything to lose if the FCC does away with Title II Net Neutrality protections and further strips Lifeline program recipients of their ability to communicate. Commissioner Clyburn’s unwavering support for affordable and accessible modern communications systems has been vital in this fight and will continue to be so in the present political moment.”

“I applaud Commissioner Clyburn for coming to Skid Row to hear from poor people and the people who serve them,” said Jessica J. González, deputy director and senior counsel at Free Press. “Tonight we spoke about how communications policies developed in D.C. affect people here in L.A. It is not lost on any of us that while Commissioner Clyburn is here listening to the people that FCC Chairman Pai is cooking up plans in Washington with corporate lobbyists behind closed doors that prioritize corporate profit over human impact. It’s no wonder that Commissioner Clyburn has been a champion of the people throughout her tenure at the FCC while Chairman Pai has been a champion of cable, telephone, internet and broadcast companies.”

“As we engage with renewed challenges to our freedom to connect and communicate, lifting up the voices of our communities is all the more essential," said Cayden Mak, executive director of 18 Million Rising. "Asian Americans — and communities of color more broadly — have a huge stake in the work of the FCC. Bringing people together, and giving the floor to folks most impacted by decisions that might otherwise be made a world away in Washington, D.C., is a critical part of ensuring that our stake is clear. I am grateful for Commissioner Clyburn’s willingness to join us in this, and for her steadfastness in the defense of communities of color online.”

“Affordable access to the open internet is essential,” said Sylvia Moore, Southern California Organizer at California Common Cause. “Net Neutrality is the difference between full participation in our democracy and second-class citizenship. We must never compromise our hard-won open-internet protections.”

“As we heard so eloquently, the internet has been a place where many of us have had access to economic opportunities not afforded to us by traditional means. It’s how we get our medical records and culturally relevant mental-health services, it’s how we stay in touch with loved ones, it’s a way for artists of color to bypass traditional gatekeepers and tell our own stories in our own way, and it’s been our town square in the movement for our lives and our dignity,” said Brandi Collins, campaign director at Color Of Change. “What we also heard is that now is not the time to go backwards but to keep moving forward to not just preserve existing protections but to fill in gaps that our communities from Skid Row to the Mississippi Delta so desperately need. We remain steadfast in our commitment to working with Commissioner Clyburn and communities to fight back against all attacks on our digital freedoms and rights.”

The link to the video of this event is available here: https://www.facebook.com/centerformediajustice

Here is the link to the event's photo album: https://www.flickr.com/photos/nhmc/sets/72157683581037786