USTelecom took the offensive in its blog on the July 12 Internet Day of Action, which organizers meant as a protest of the FCC's planned rollback of Title II.

USTelecom president Jonathan Spalter said the real issue in the net-neutrality protest was protecting the bottom lines of "large, powerful internet companies." Among the participants in the protest are Google, Twitter, Facebook, Netflix and Amazon, for example.

"Net neutrality is something we all strongly support, and ISPs are committed to modern rules that protect the universally-embraced principles of no blocking, no throttling and no slow lanes," said Spalter, the last a reference to the no paid prioritization rule. "From Amazon to Twitter to Netflix to, yes, even Pornhub [also an Action Day participant], these online giants want consumers to insist to the FCC that only 100 pages of heavy-handed regulations written in 1934 can 'save net neutrality.' These are the same companies that grew to supremacy in the absence of this heavy-handed framework, yet suddenly now they want consumers to believe it is essential."

Read More: Complete Internet Day of Action Coverage

ISPs have argued that Washington is hyper-focused on them as gatekeepers, while keeping a hands-off approach on edge providers as though they were still struggling garage-innovators, rather than behemoths with staggering valuations and market power.

"When you log on today and see the 'spinning wheel of doom,'" Spalter wrote [the protest includes online graphics simulating those endlessly spinning "load" icons], "keep in mind that some of the biggest and most dominant online companies in the world don’t need you to fight their battles for them, but they are asking anyway."

As with other ISP groups weighing in on Advocacy Day, USTelecom wants Congress to step in. Spalter said the solution to regulatory certainty is "clean, modern net-neutrality rules that safeguard consumers’ online freedoms without sacrificing their equally keen interest in stronger, faster broadband networks — and all the innovation it makes possible."

He said FCC chair Ajit Pai, in proposing to roll back Title II for wired and wireless ISPs and interconnections, eliminating the general conduct standard and rethinking the other rules, "should be commended for seeking that balance in his net-neutrality proceeding."

But Spalter also said Congress should "do right by all consumers to make these protections permanent under the law."

Related: Rep. Walden Advocates for Internet Bill

That is a tall order in a bitterly divided Congress, with some Democrats feeling that coming to the table is not a winning strategy on net neutrality or much else.

House Energy & Commerce Committee chair Greg Walden (R-Ore.) celebrated the Internet Day of Action Wednesday (July 12) by calling for bipartisan net-neutrality legislation.

ISPs have also focused on a bill to clarify that the FCC can enforce net-neutrality rules of the road without imposing Title II.

Related > NCTA: Title II, Net Neutrality Not Remotely the Same

“Today’s Day of Action highlights the need for Congress to work together to protect consumers and ensure a free and open internet," Walden said.

"The internet and the new technologies it unleashed have revolutionized the world in just a few short decades, and done so with little or no federal regulation," Walden said, also echoing ISPs' take on the regulatory history. "I again call on my Democratic colleagues, edge providers and ISPs, and all those who make up the diverse internet ecosystem that has flourished under light-touch regulation to come to the table and work with us on bipartisan legislation that preserves an open internet while not discouraging the investments necessary to fully connect all Americans. Too much is at stake to have this issue ping-pong between different FCC commissions and various courts over the next decade."

Related > Dems Add Their Voices to Internet Advocacy Day

Hill watchers are not hopeful that Congress can find common ground given the deep divisions between parties on a host of issues. With some Democrats feeling steamrolled on healthcare, and in the wake of the Republican Congressional Review Act nullification of the Title II-related FCC broadband privacy framework, a bipartisan FCC broadband regulatory authority clarification bill that does not include Title II -- as it cannot from the Republican side -- will be a tough ask.

Video-sharing website Vimeo is telling supporters that the FCC is planning to “repeal” net-neutrality rules and, if that happens, the internet will “start to resemble an old, rigid (vanilla) cable TV system, instead of the open (and ‘weird’) network that we know and love.”

The Federal Communications Commission has yet to announce exactly what it will do with the Tom Wheeler-era rules, but it is a pretty safe bet some of them are going and that Title II reclassification of ISPs will be rolled back, given the Republican majority’s distaste for Title II.

Vimeo's website is participating in the July 12 Internet Action Day to protest FCC chair Ajit Pai’s proposal to reclassify internet access, wired and wireless, and interconnections, as an information service not subject to Title II common-carrier regulations, as well as to eliminate the general conduct standard and reconsider whether the bright-line rules against blocking, throttling and paid prioritization are necessary.

Organizer Fight for the Future said more than 50,000 people, sites or organizations are participating in Internet Action Day. Vimeo is one of a host of edge providers participating in the protest — Amazon, Etsy, Mozilla and Netflix are as well — and it's marshaling its online video resources to make its case. 

"Participating" includes posting homepage messages, push notifications, videos, email campaigns and more, by some of the same groups behind the Internet Slowdown protest that helped defeat online piracy legislation (SOPA, PIPA) despite previous bipartisan Hill support.

For its part, Vimeo reached out to the producers who make its monthly “Staff Pick” videos of content that Vimeo staffers “really, really like” to create a Why We Need Net Neutrality video to say why they really, really like the Internet under Title II.

Initial comments on Pai's net-neutrality rule proposal are due July 14.