Joining the revolt taking place in the streets and online against FCC chair Ajit Pai's plan to kill net neutrality, more than 20 pioneers of the internet—including world wide web inventor Tim Berners-Lee, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, and Vint Cert, one of the "fathers of the internet"—published an open letter on Monday slamming Pai's proposals as "flawed and factually inaccurate" and demanding that his agency cancel its planned Thursday vote.

"The FCC's rushed and technically incorrect proposed order to abolish net neutrality protections without any replacement is an imminent threat to the internet we worked so hard to create," the letter reads. "It should be stopped."

The letter went on to lambast the FCC for ignoring both expert analyses (pdf) calling attention to the GOP-controlled agency's "misunderstandings" of the web and the millions of public comments demonstrating that the American people are "clearly passionate about protecting the internet."

Given the speed with which Pai is bringing his plan to a vote, the "FCC could not possibly have considered these [comments] adequately," the internet pioneers argue. "Indeed, breaking with established practice, the FCC has not held a single open public meeting to hear from citizens and experts about the proposed order."

With their scathing open letter, internet founders and industry experts added to the massive flood of outrage sparked by Pai's plan to gut net neutrality protections, which was released last month.

In addition to protests on the ground in all 50 states last week and the upcoming "Break the Internet" demonstrations beginning on Tuesday, the FCC's two Democratic commissioners have also spoken out against their Republican colleagues' proposals.

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Echoing arguments of the internet's creators in a Wired op-ed on Saturday, FCC commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel ripped the "lack of integrity" in the FCC's public comment process and called on the agency "to do something simple: It should get out from behind its computers and desks and hold public hearings on the changes it has proposed."

"Failure to do so here is tantamount to accepting fraud in this process and using it to justify the rollback of net neutrality rules," Rosenworcel concluded. "For the American people a rush vote like this, on a questionable record, will look and feel illegitimate. They should demand a better process and a better result."

Judging by their open letter, the internet's founders and industry experts agree. Their full letter follows: