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FCC Refuses To Release Text of More Than 40,000 Net Neutrality Complaints (arstechnica.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the pain-in-the-ass dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: The Federal Communications Commission has denied a request to extend the deadline for filing public comments on its plan to overturn net neutrality rules, and the FCC is refusing to release the text of more than 40,000 net neutrality complaints that it has received since June 2015. The National Hispanic Media Coalition (NHMC) filed a Freedom of Information Act (FoIA) request in May of this year for tens of thousands of net neutrality complaints that Internet users filed against their ISPs. The NHMC argues that the details of these complaints are crucial for analyzing FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's proposal to overturn net neutrality rules. The coalition also asked the FCC to extend the initial comment deadline until 60 days after the commission fully complies with the FoIA request. A deadline extension would have given people more time to file public comments on the plan to eliminate net neutrality rules. Instead, the FCC yesterday denied the motion for an extension and said that it will only provide the text for a fraction of the complaints, because providing them all would be too burdensome.

3 of 64 comments (clear)

  1. Fraction of the complaints by sit1963nz · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The fraction supplied will however be carefully culled to put the best light on the FCC plan. All that time "selecting" that few leaves no time to supply everything.

    1. Re:Fraction of the complaints by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The FCC has absolutely no intention of allowing the public any say whatsoever in this decision. They have a plan, and they intend to carry it out, and that's it.

  2. Re:Vote with your wallets, libertardians. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    That's right! The Free Market will cure everything! Ditch your slimeball ISP. Oh, wait, the other local ISPs - if any - are also slimeballs. So vote with your wallet, Oh wait, you have one vote and there are 10 million customers who annoyingly aren't co-operating by doing likewise.

    No Worries! Someone will come along and address that market need for a non-slimeball ISP. Oh wait, no one did!

    No Worries! Just create your own ISP! All it takes is a few million for capital equipment and staff. Or maybe just form a company big enough for you and your friends. Doesn't matter - the cost to hook into the Internet backbone is the same high price - or maybe a little more, whether you have 100,000 customers or 10. And if you're lucky, the nearest backbone provider will be - guess what - an established slimeball ISP!

    Libertarian fantasies are great, but like Communism, they fail to allow for human nature. They expect people to be educated and rational when most will fight tooth and nail for the right to be neither, and they assume that you can become competitive in any industry with whatever small change you can dig out of your pocket as long as the damn gubmit don't get in the way.