Some one-hundred people rallied outside Google headquarters in Mountain View, California today, shouting a phrase that would be familiar to any employee inside: "Don't Be Evil!"
It's Google's company motto, after all.
The Internet users were protesting a controversial policy proposal penned by Google and Verizon that could potentially upend net neutrality and create a tiered Internet. (See their plan)
The rally, organized by MoveOn.org Civic Action, ColorofChange.org, Credo Action, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee and Free Press, urged the search-engine giant to live up to its corporate philosophies, according to a statement. The protesters highlighted point number six on the company's 'Ten Things' mission statement: You can make money without doing evil. The advocates also "delivered hundreds of thousands of letters and petitions from people across the country urging Google to abandon the proposal," said a statement.
Describing the net neutrality deal as "evil," Justin Ruben, executive director of liberal group MoveOn.org, and Craig Aaron, managing director of Free Press, called upon the FCC to denounce the deal if it goes through. "Google is threatening the very core of Internet freedom," Ruben said.
"Google was once the little guy in the garage, and thanks to the protections of net neutrality, it was able to grow into an Internet giant," said Craig Aaron, managing director of Free Press. "But if this proposal were to become law, the next Google, now being dreamed up out there in a garage somewhere, would never get the same chance.
Earlier this week, thirty-five Tea Party groups took a strong stand against net neutrality, penning a letter to the FCC urging it not to support the Internet policy.
Click here to see what other executives, academics and advocates think about the issue, then read what users themselves have to say about Google and Verizon's proposal and the ways they've been lashing out at the proposed framework.