In the face of opposition from New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and no less than 28 U.S. senators, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and his team will move forward with the repeal of the Obama administration’s rules on net neutrality.
Despite the barrage of purportedly fake public comments that may have distorted perceptions around net neutrality and existing regulations, the Federal Communications Commission is sticking to its Dec. 14 voting date and its plan to dismantle in-force regulations.
In defense of the Commission’s position, FCC spokeswoman Tina Pelkey said in an emailed statement:
“At today’s news conference, they didn’t identify a single comment relied upon in the draft order as being questionable. This is an attempt by people who want to keep the Obama Administration’s heavy-handed Internet regulations to delay the vote because they realize that their effort to defeat the plan to restore Internet freedom has stalled.”
During the open comment period, more than 23 million comments – some spurred by comedian John Oliver from HBO – were posted.
Of these, as many as 8 million comments may have been fake, according to a study commissioned by an industry group called Broadband for America that represents ISPs.
Another study by Emprata showed that among the unique comments, the majority were against the repeal (1.77 million against 24,000.)
Nevertheless, the FCC statement clearly indicates that opposers have failed to single out any comments used for the draft order as being outright fake or even questionable.
As such, the vote is likely to push through as planned, bringing an end to Democrat efforts to preserve the integrity of the Internet.
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