Following today’s disappointing vote from the FCC, Alexis and I wanted to take the time to thank redditors for your incredible activism on this issue, and reassure you that we’re going to continue fighting for the free and open internet.

Over the past few months, we have been floored by the energy and creativity redditors have displayed in the effort to save net neutrality. It was inspiring to witness organic takeovers of the front page (twice), read touching stories about how net neutrality matters in users’ everyday lives, see bills about net neutrality discussed on the front page (with over 100,000 upvotes and cross-posts to over 100 communities), and watch redditors exercise their voices as citizens in the hundreds of thousands of calls they drove to Congress.

It is disappointing that the FCC Chairman plowed ahead with his planned repeal despite all of this public concern, not to mention the objections expressed by his fellow commissioners, the FCC’s own CTO, more than a hundred members of Congress, dozens of senators, and the very builders of the modern internet.

Nevertheless, today’s vote is the beginning, not the end. While the fight to preserve net neutrality is going to be longer than we had hoped, this is far from over.

Many of you have asked what comes next. We don’t exactly know yet, but it seems likely that the FCC’s decision will be challenged in court soon, and we would be supportive of that challenge. It’s also possible that Congress can decide to take up the cause and create strong, enforceable net neutrality rules that aren’t subject to the political winds at the FCC. Nevertheless, this will be a complex process that takes time.

What is certain is that Reddit will continue to be involved in this issue in the way that we know best: seeking out every opportunity to amplify your voices and share them with those who have the power to make a difference.

This isn’t the outcome we wanted, but you should all be proud of the awareness you’ve created. Those who thought that they’d be able to quietly repeal net neutrality without anyone noticing or caring learned a thing or two, and we still may come out on top of this yet. We’ll keep you informed as things develop.

u/arabscarab (Jessica, our head of policy) will also be in the comments to address your questions.

—u/spez & u/kn0thing

update: Please note the FCC is not united in this decision and find the dissenting statements from commissioners Clyburn and Rosenworcel.

update2 (9:55AM pst): While the vote has not technically happened, we decided to post after the two dissenting commissioners released their statements. However, the actual vote appears to be delayed for security reasons. We hope everyone is safe.

update3 (10:13AM pst): The FCC votes to repeal 3–2.