More than 50 older and disabled people marched and occupied a downtown San Francisco AT&T store on Monday demanding better access to one of the most vital necessities of modern life – the Internet.
The demonstration was sparked a by lack of access to wireless connections in an increasingly digital world, a divide exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a report from the San Francisco Chronicle.
Organizers told the paper that access to the internet is a matter of survival in present times.
With many aspects of daily life moving almost exclusively online during the pandemic, stable internet has become essential to access important necessities such as medical care, which is especially important for older and disabled people. And for many in those groups, that access is hard to come by with the surging cost of the utility.
Protesters marched inside the AT&T store at 1 Powell St. and chanted "AT&T have some respect, we can’t afford the internet," the paper said.
The demonstrators specifically demanded free, fast internet of at least 200 megabytes per second for older, disabled and low income residents in nine Bay Area counties.
Organizers chose to occupy AT&T because it’s the most widely used Internet service provider both in the Bay Area and across the country.
"We support the right to assemble and protest on public property and understand the importance of reliable internet access, especially for senior and disabled communities," AT&T said in a statement to the Chronicle responding to the protest. "We encourage customers to stay connected and explore low-cost home internet service options through Access from AT&T and the Emergency Broadband Benefit."
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