A John Oliver Net Neutrality Rant Has Crippled The FCC Website A Second Time
from the once-more-into-the-breach dept
Back in 2014, you might recall that John Oliver's HBO show "Last Week tonight" aired an outstanding piece on net neutrality. In it, Oliver compared then FCC boss Tom Wheeler to a dingo, explained why a neutral internet was important, and trashed much of the flimsy logic giant ISPs like Comcast use to consistently justify anti-competitive behavior. The piece was so immensely successful at explaining an incredibly complicated and relatively wonky subject, it drove a record number of annoyed consumers to the FCC commenting website -- where they demanded the FCC step up and defend the open internet.
That public outcry was a major reason Wheeler decided to reclassify ISPs as common carriers under Title II of the Communications Act -- and pass real net neutrality rules in 2015.
Fast forward to 2017. New FCC boss Ajit Pai has made it abundantly clear he plans to gut those same rules, resulting in Oliver running a second piece on net neutrality on Sunday night:
In this new video, Oliver notes that he registered the gofccyourself.com domain, making it simpler for annoyed net neutrality supporters to find the relevant FCC proceeding comment section on the agency's website. And, once again, it appears that the FCC's website was crippled by the massive influx of viewers. Shortly after the program aired, the FCC website collapsed under heavy load, and continued to suffer from issues throughout Monday (though there's an alternative way to file your comments to the FCC via this link).
In his piece, Oliver once again urged those that care about an open internet to step up to the plate. And given net neutrality's massive, bipartisan appeal, he suggested that "Donald Trump's internet fans" should lend a hand:
"Every internet group needs to come together like you successfully did three years ago," Oliver declared. "Every subculture must join as one. Gamers, YouTube celebrities, Instagram models, and even Tom from MySpace, if you're still alive." Oliver also implored "Donald Trump's internet fans on sites like 4Chan and Reddit" to join the fight. "This subject is one of the things that we actually really agree on," Oliver said.
Since data shows that satirists often do a better job informing the public than many actual news outlets, net neutrality supporters hope that Oliver's second piece on the subject livens up what has been a fairly tepid and apathetic public reaction to the killing of the rules. ISPs and Pai hope to capitalize on debate fatigue and fractured attention spans when the agency votes to launch a notice of proposed rulemaking on May 18 to begin dismantling the rules. From there, the public commenting period will be extended until a finalizing vote later this year.
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Filed Under: ajit pai, fcc, john oliver, net neutrality, title ii
Reader Comments
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I do watch Jhon Oliver Show
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Since the Trump controlled FCC
Please press 1 if you are calling about your slower internet speeds since the new FCC chairman was appointed.
Please press 2 if you are calling about your higher prices since the new FCC chairman was appointed.
Please press 0 if you would like to be routed to a call center in a third world country.
Your call is important to us. Comcast wishes to apologize for any convenience you may have experienced.
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Re: Since the Trump controlled FCC
That made me LOL.
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If you're having trouble at the FCC change web browsers
I switched from Firefox to edge, and had to click on the drop down box multiple times for it to finally load the list of states and let me submit my comment.
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I hope that isn't what happens, but I'm always afraid it's a possibility.
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Re:
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We also have to be careful of ISPs co-opting the language. If we get a million people just saying they want net neutrality and Open Internet, Comcast and Verizon are planning to hold that up as proof that people don't want government oversight of "the Internet". It's doublespeak and it's false.
Don't let them muddy the waters, be clear in the terms you use and what they mean. We DO need regulation of Internet Service Providers, but NOT censorship of the Internet in general.
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The true test is how much further into the media and into the future this issue makes it. I think the issue is pretty well-defined and has a very broad support, but the attention has been lacking for it to scare politicians into rethinking their position - away from the money talks it is today and into a bullshit walks. Don't worry defence contracting is impossible for the public to turn into an actual issue since it is so easy to cover it in shrouds of "national security".
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Re: Re:
"Popcorn, get your TechDirt Popcorn (tm) for the Pai/Oliver Smear fight!"
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Then, of course, what's the alternative? Oliver and other shows not informing the public out of fear that their words will be misused? Informing them but making sure they don't make it too easy to register their comments? Not enabling people to have their voice clearly heard is more problematic than people arbitrarily deciding not to listen, I think.
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Is the flood of commenters related to the alleged DDOS?
FCC Office of Media Relations released an official statement alleging that the FCC website comments section was the victim of a DDOS. These actors were not attempting to file comments themselves.
Not the dismissal of public outrage I expected.
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Re: Is the flood of commenters related to the alleged DDOS?
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Re: Re: Is the flood of commenters related to the alleged DDOS?
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update: FCC claims DDOS
the time that the DDOS started (as stated by the FCC itself) would have coincided with when comments would have started flooding in post show.
also correct me if I am wrong, but didn't the first FCC site drop last several days as well?
The FCC however, has elected NOT to elaborate or make a statement thereof.
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Maybe I'll just do this the normal way instead...
Problem is though that this (and many other) John Oliver videos are geoblocked for Canadian persons. While there's probably a long and complicated reasoning for this (someone needs to prod Bell for answers) it still happened. That also means that both HBO and John Oliver's producing staff allowed this.
So I'll just got to fcc.gov directly and see what I can stir up there. Might as well go right to the source if I can't even hear what the middleman has to say for less than $15 per month.
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Great :/
Thanks, Ashit Pi.
Let's hope the FCC's website has issues long enough for them to get the hint.
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John Oliver and the FCC
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Not open to all
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Lame
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Re: Lame
I know this is probably a weak Poe attempt, but it's amusing to see an excuse even less workable than the official "we had a DDOS at that time, nothing to do with genuine interest" response.
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How out of touch are they
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Web Site not compatible with Chrome
Irony, much?
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classic solitaire
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funny jokes
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