On a national day of action for safe schools amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, dozens of protestors outside Comcast’s Center City headquarters on Monday afternoon demanded better internet access for low-income Philadelphians and for the telecomms giant to divest funding from the Philadelphia Police Department.

Devren Washington, a senior policy organizer for Movement Alliance Project, one of the organizations that helped organize the protest, said he believes that Comcast has not provided enough support for communities in need of digital access — a problem exacerbated by COVID-19.

“With the pandemic and everything happening, the digital divide has been a bad issue in Philadelphia,” he told Technical.ly. “The pandemic has heightened that and it has really impacted students as they’ve tried to do online education. It’s turned into ‘the have and have nots.’ Students with internet are often more affluent and white and able to take advantage and continue education. For Black and brown and poor students, they’re looking at huge hurdles.”

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