Dr. Sara Schoonmaker is a sociologist at the University of Redlands who studies net neutrality, surveillance and civil liberties in the digital age. She highlights global communities of resistance that create alternatives to corporate control of software and the internet. She holds a doctorate in sociology from Boston College. Her book, Free Software, the Internet, and Global Communities of Resistance, was published by Routledge in 2018.

"There is a battle going on over net neutrality, which means equal access to the internet for all users. In December 2017, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted to repeal rules protecting net neutrality. Advocates for net neutrality are fighting to block that repeal. This fight matters to all of us because net neutrality is central to our democracy and to our basic freedoms as citizens. Net neutrality supports our civil liberties like freedom of speech and the right to privacy when we use the internet."