FCC Chair, and self-proclaimed supporter of the First Amendment, Ajit Pai has been noticeably silent in the wake of President Trump’s recent suggestion that the FCC look into revoking the broadcast licenses of NBC and others that air news stories that are unfavorable to the White House. Pai is finally speaking up, and confirming what we already knew: That the FCC doesn’t have the legal authority to take NBC off the air over a news story. [More]
ajit pai
FCC Chair Confirms He Can’t & Won’t Take Away Broadcast Licenses Because President Doesn’t Like A News Story
By 10.17.17
FCC Votes To Move Forward With Process Of Killing Net Neutrality
By 5.18.17
As expected, the Federal Communications Commission voted 2-1 this morning to move forward with Chairman Ajit Pai’s plan to roll back “net neutrality” rules that currently prevent internet service providers from having any say in what you see or do online. [More]
FCC Commissioner Warns Against Dismantling Of Net Neutrality
By 5.11.17
The Federal Communications Commission will soon begin the long process of trying to roll back the Open Internet Order, the FCC’s barely two-year-old rule that prohibits internet service providers and wireless companies from having any say in what you do or where you go online. Though the Commission’s lone Democrat is unlikely to change the minds of her anti-regulation colleagues, she’s not ready to admit defeat just yet. [More]
Senators Want FCC Chair To Explain Why Online Comment System Crashed
By 5.9.17
What caused the crash of the Federal Communications Commission’s online comment-filing system? The FCC is blaming denial-of-service attacks from “external actors” without explicitly laying any blame on comedian John Oliver’s latest story about net neutrality. Now, some Senators want to know what happened. [More]
John Oliver Tries To Save Net Neutrality Again; Likens FCC Chair Ajit Pai To A Serial Killer
By 5.8.17
With both the Federal Communications Commission and Congress looking to undo relatively recent net neutrality rules that prohibit internet service providers from interfering with what you do online, it was once again time for Last Week Tonight‘s John Oliver to remind viewers of how important these rules are; possibly disrupting the FCC’s public commenting system in the process. [More]
FCC Looking Into Complaints About Stephen Colbert’s Anti-Trump Jokes
By 5.5.17
TV host Stephen Colbert recently responded to President Donald Trump’s insulting remarks to CBS reporter John Dickerson with a slew of invective of his own. Now, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai says his Commission is looking into complaints that the Late Show host’s remarks may have violated obscenity regulations. [More]
Verizon Is Now Flat-Out Lying About Efforts To Kill Net Neutrality
By 5.1.17 — Updated: 5.9.17
In a video that would be laughable if it weren’t so terrifying, a senior executive at Verizon repeatedly lies about the FCC’s recently launched efforts to gut its own “net neutrality” rules, about his company’s support of net neutrality, and what these rules actually do. [More]
Inventor Of World Wide Web: Gutting Net Neutrality Would Lets ISPs “Pick Winners And Losers”
By 4.26.17
Earlier today, FCC Chair Ajit Pai revealed his plan to scuttle existing regulations for internet service providers and replace them with promises from the industry that they won’t do anything bad. It is all in the name of innovation, declared Pai, but the innovator who created the World Wide Web and the very first website, is calling the Chairman out. [More]
Senate Votes To Roll Back Privacy Protections For Internet Users
By and 3.23.17
The FCC’s efforts to put restrictions on what internet service providers can do with the information they have about their users is all but dead, following a party-line 50-48 vote in the Senate this afternoon to roll back this regulation. [More]
FCC Chair Claims Broadband Investment At Historic Low Level Because Of Net Neutrality; That’s Not What The Numbers Say
By 2.28.17
This morning, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai made a claim that net neutrality, which hasn’t even been in place for two years, has driven investment in U.S. broadband to historically low levels. However, the actual numbers given by the nation’s largest cable and telecom companies don’t appear to back this up. [More]
FCC Chair Ajit Pai Has No Plans To Review AT&T/Time Warner Merger
By 2.27.17
In recent years, the FCC played a key part in blocking the mergers of AT&T and T-Mobile, and Comcast and Time Warner Cable, while also using its regulatory leverage to place pro-consumer conditions on the mergers it did approve — like getting Charter to agree to not use data caps for seven years. However, the FCC will apparently give AT&T its wish and not even chime in on the pending merger of AT&T and Time Warner. [More]
Why You Should Care That All FCC Settlements Must Now Go Through Full Commission Vote
By 2.8.17 — Updated: 2.9.17
New FCC chair Ajit Pai is a very busy man. After only a few weeks sitting behind the big desk, he’s killed off cable set-top box reform, abandoned rate caps on prison calls, scuttled Lifeline expansion, and decided violating net neutrality (which he hates) through zero-rating is officially not the FCC’s problem. Having accomplished all those goals, Pai is now targeting the Commission’s Enforcement Bureau, potentially making it more difficult to hold wrongdoing telecom companies accountable. [More]
Congressional Committee Officially Asks FCC To Kill Set-Top Box Reform
By 1.27.17
If you had any hope of being able to get your cable box from someone other than your cable company (or paying Tivo’s ridiculously high prices and subscription fees), you should probably just throw that hope into the garbage bin. One Congressional committee — the head of which has been heavily funded by the pay-TV and broadcast industries — has officially called on new FCC Chair Ajit Pai to scuttle the agency’s stalled efforts to make set-top boxes better and more affordable. [More]
Senators Call On AT&T And Time Warner To Explain How Merger Will Benefit Americans
By 1.25.17
During the campaign, then-candidate Donald Trump talked openly about putting a halt to the pending merger of AT&T and Time Warner, he has since appointed an FCC Chairman who has historically been pro-merger. That’s why a handful of Senators have called on the two companies to explain how this consolidation will be in the public interest. [More]
Net Neutrality Foe Ajit Pai Officially Named FCC Chairman
By 1.23.17
As expected, President Trump has elevated Ajit Pai from his FCC Commissioner to Chairman, clearly establishing that the new administration seeks to undo the telecommunications regulations of the previous White House. [More]
Net Neutrality Basher Ajit Pai Reportedly Close To Being Named FCC Chairman
By 1.20.17
As we mentioned more than a month ago, conservative FCC firebrand Ajit Pai was among the most likely candidates to be appointed as Commission’s chairman following the exit of now-former Chair Tom Wheeler. Now comes a report claiming that Pai will soon be handed the reins of an agency whose recent policies he openly opposed. [More]
Likely Pick For Next FCC Chair Thinks Net Neutrality’s “Days Are Numbered”
By 12.8.16 — Updated: 1.4.17
The FCC has approved a significant number of major pro-consumer rules in the last few years. Most, however, were contentious within the Commission, and passed on a 3-2 margin. One of the two reliable dissenters, commissioner Ajit Pai, is now on deck as the likely inheritor of the Chairman’s seat when President-Elect Donald Trump’s administration comes to power in January — and he’s already hoping to do away with some of the FCC’s recent rules. [More]
