Ajit Pai not concerned about number of pro-net neutrality comments

One day after a large protest of his plan to gut net neutrality rules, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai was asked if the number of pro-net neutrality comments submitted to the FCC might cause a change in course.

In response, Pai maintained his stance that the number of comments is not as important as the content of those comments. Further Reading How Facebook, Google, Netflix, and others supported net neutrality today

"As I said previously, the raw number is not as important as the substantive comments that are in the record," Pai said at a press conference following yesterday's monthly FCC meeting.

Pai was answering a question posed by reporter Lynn Stanton of TRDaily. Stanton asked, "shouldn't the number of consumers who feel they are detrimentally affected be a factor in a cost-benefit analysis of what you do?" Pai did not give a definitive yes-or-no answer to the question of whether the number of pro-net neutrality comments would make any difference in his decision.

Pai previously addressed specific comments on one occasion, when he praised the "exceptionally important contribution to the debate" made by a group of 19 nonprofit municipal-broadband providers who oppose the current net neutrality rules. But Pai made no comment later on when 30 small ISPs urged him to preserve the rules.

The FCC is taking comments on Pai's plan to overturn the classification of broadband providers as common carriers and to repeal or replace the net neutrality rules that forbid blocking, throttling, and paid prioritization. On Wednesday, advocacy groups held an "Internet-wide Day of Action to Save Net Neutrality," which attracted support from website operators both large and small.

Advocacy group Fight for the Future said the protest resulted in more than five million e-mails and 124,000 phone calls to Congress and more than two million comments to the FCC. Participating websites directed visitors to forms that they could use to submit pre-written comments. There are now more than 7.6 million public comments on Pai's "Restoring Internet Freedom" proceeding.

The deadline for filing initial comments is July 17, and reply comments are due August 16. The FCC will make a final decision sometime after that, but Pai said he hasn't decided on timing yet.

Many of the anti-net neutrality comments were submitted by spam bots impersonating people whose names and addresses were taken from data breaches. There's also been evidence of a smaller amount of pro-net neutrality bot activity. The FCC has not been removing fraudulent comments from the record.

"We want to weigh all comments and make sure that we take a full view of the record, and again make the appropriate judgment based on those facts and the law as it applies," Pai said yesterday.

When net neutrality rules were implemented in 2015, Pai claimed that the agency was "using legal authority the FCC doesn't have." But the entire net neutrality order was upheld last year by a federal appeals court, which rejected legal challenges from broadband lobby groups.

Pai's intentions are clear. When he announced his plan to overturn the 2015 net neutrality order, he said, "Make no mistake about it: this is a fight that we intend to wage and it is a fight that we are going to win."

Courts have generally allowed the FCC to classify broadband however it wishes, a fact that might help Pai in his battle. Still, net neutrality advocates say that comments could be important when Pai's FCC has to defend its decision in court.

For more information on FCC comments, read our story, "How to write a meaningful FCC comment supporting net neutrality." Comments are being taken at this link.