Net Activists Hammer Pai

Net-neutrality activists were quick to react to Ajit Pai's press conference Tuesday (Feb. 10), where the Federal Communications Commission commissioner criticized agency chairman Tom Wheeler's proposed Title II-based network-neutrality rule order and attributed its impetus to White House influence and politics.  

Some of those groups didn't even wait for the press conference to respond to it, anticipating the arguments and criticisms from earlier Pai statements; Pai has made no secret of his dislike of the rules and the process that has produced them.  

The groups made no secret of their dislike either. Free Press called Pai's criticisms "nonsense" and "fear mongering" and Public Knowledge said Pai's repeated attribution of the plan to President Obama —who came out forcefully for Title II specifically, not simply strong net-neutrality rules in general— as "the worst sort of dismissive and elitist insult to the American people."

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John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.