Net Neutrality Docket Pushes Past 22 million Comments

The FCC had not finished posting all the comments to its network neutrality docket that were filed by the Aug. 30 deadline, according to an FCC source speaking on background late Friday.

By late Sunday, the total comments, including those filed since the deadline, had pushed past 22 million to 22,146,888.

The FCC will continue to collect and post those comments, but only those filed before Aug. 30 are part of the official record the commission has to consider as it makes the decision on whether to roll back Title II classification of internet access providers and reconsider the rules against blocking, throttling and paid prioritization.

In that Restoring Internet Freedom proposal, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai is also proposing to scrap the general conduct standard, which the previous chairman, Tom Wheeler, said was necessary so that the FCC could deal on a case-by-case basis with potential impediments to net neutrality that did not fall within those "bright-line" rules.

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.