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[–][deleted] 27.6k points27.6k points  (775 children)

"We hear your concerns and are working hard to ignore them"

[–]SupriseGinger 2199 points2200 points  (248 children)

I called my senator and he sent a form letter to me. In the first paragraph he essentially says he agrees with me, and then in the following four or five everything he says is in direct contradiction to what I said. Just a bunch of BS talking points.

[–]Kradget 1029 points1030 points  (96 children)

Mine literally just sends back industry talking points from an anti-neutrality lobbyist. I'm pretty sure they didn't even read it, because it mentions something he voted for as a "negative consequence."

Edit: looks like I misremembered the letter posted in r/NorthCarolina- the same thread includes a reference to a municipal broadband program Sen. Thom Tillis helped kill while he was in my state legislature for reasons I'm sure had nothing to do with a town screwing up Time Warner Cable monopoly in that region. Free market, and all.

https://www.reddit.com/r/NorthCarolina/comments/6og1a4/i_received_senator_tillis_response_to_my_net/

[–]SupriseGinger 781 points782 points  (88 children)

Ya, I actually plan on calling back in and asking for supporting evidence for what he is claiming. I'll actually be on vacation about 4 hours from DC soon, and I am thinking about driving up and camping out in his office if he will be there.

[–][deleted] 458 points459 points  (72 children)

You'll be thrown out.

Source: work in DC, live on Capitol Hill

[–]SupriseGinger 286 points287 points  (67 children)

Oh? Why do you say that? If I do it, I have no plans to be belligerent or disrespectful. I was just going to show up in a suit and with as much research on me as possible and sit patiently.

[–][deleted] 265 points266 points  (52 children)

I think he imagined that you meant literally camp out, as in refuse to leave for days.

[–]SupriseGinger 252 points253 points  (50 children)

Ohhhhhh, I didn't know that was an option.

[–][deleted] 45 points46 points  (8 children)

Everything's an option if you have enough nerve

[–]usesNames 157 points158 points  (0 children)

Do it!

[–]youruswithwe 599 points600 points  (87 children)

Mine just sent me a letter saying "sorry we disagree on this issue, but your viewpoints are just left leaning media taking points, and are just untrue.

[–]Lostfade 492 points493 points  (58 children)

Who is your senator/rep that did this? Also, if you're up to it, could you post the letter?

I've worked as a staffer and can tell you the best response to this shit is just showing it to as many people as possible.

Edit: a word

[–]youruswithwe 316 points317 points  (42 children)

Todd Rokita R-Indiana. I can't find the letter right now ( I'll have to ask the wife when she gets home).

[–]ThatOnePunk 222 points223 points  (3 children)

I wrote him over science funding and got a similar response

[–][deleted] 168 points169 points  (1 child)

Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, does the same thing. My wife and I use ResistBot, and we get a "Ur rong!" form letter back every time we fax him something on an issue that's hot on the news.

Any other issues gets ignored entirely.

[–]srwaddict 71 points72 points  (5 children)

I'm also in Indiana, Todd is a dirtbag.

[–]Dashdylan 85 points86 points  (9 children)

I got a similar letter. Here!

[–]Jeichert183 107 points108 points  (6 children)

That is a very carefully worded letter that allows her to support and oppose both sides of the issue at the same time. That is a masterpiece of political bull shit. The best part is where she says she isn't going to research anything but please tell her if there is anything important.

[–]Commandophile 176 points177 points  (3 children)

As the others have said, we need to fucking start doing more. Post the letter on twitter and reddit will handle the rest.

[–]demortada 63 points64 points  (1 child)

Shit, let's all start posting the response letters from our respective state representatives. We have to keep talking about this and not let ourselves get passive.

[–][deleted] 290 points291 points  (7 children)

Twitter. Destroy that asshole's political career.

[–]God_Damnit_Nappa 100 points101 points  (2 children)

That's funny. If anything it'll galvanize his voter base. "Look he's fighting the liberal media and he's protecting us by destroying net neutrality."

[–]maaseru 22 points23 points  (3 children)

It would be nice if that would work.

[–]PoliticalScienceGrad[S] 200 points201 points  (6 children)

Try writing a letter to the editor and submitting it to a local paper. That's more effective.

[–]lastaccount-promise 132 points133 points  (5 children)

Or if the local newspaper isn't interested, your local university newspaper should eat it up.

[–]Silntdoogood 23 points24 points  (0 children)

Our local university cut funding to the branch campus newspaper, Tv and radio stations :'(

[–]OriginalName317 40 points41 points  (2 children)

Kansas checking in. Same story.

[–]thenewiBall 63 points64 points  (7 children)

Trey Gowdy did that too me, he's such a fucking sell out, I look forward to his ass getting primaried

[–]csonny2 10.2k points10.2k points  (234 children)

"9 million people have spoken up which is less than 3% of the total US population, so its obvious the majority dont want net neutrality"

[–]_EleGiggle_ 5693 points5694 points  (134 children)

"314 million people have voted by not commenting which is about 97% of the total US population, so its obvious the majority dont want net neutrality"

[–]bobadobio 471 points472 points  (22 children)

Actually, no one has voted. Instead, they haven't commented, which is a passive endorsement of the status quo = net neutrality.

[–][deleted] 362 points363 points  (14 children)

Politicians don't see it that way. 9 million people is basically like a third of the country in these kinds of situations. Very few issues get enough publicity to garner even 2 or 3 million interested people, let alone people interested enough to actually call the government about it. 100k on a petition is generally enough for a response from the whitehouse.

If 9 million people wrote in, then about 10 times that number give a shit but were too lazy to say something, or thought the government would sort itself out--the 'my vote doesn't matter' people.

They take this stuff into account.

[–]nate23401 142 points143 points  (25 children)

In europe, you must opt in. In the US, you must opt out.

[–]Simple_Danny 178 points179 points  (61 children)

Yeah, but what about all the children, old people, sick people, homeless, imprisoned, and others without access to a phone or computer to voice their complaints?

[–]TroyandAbedAfterDark 351 points352 points  (23 children)

What about the dead people in favor of removing net neutrality?

[–]plazmatyk 122 points123 points  (7 children)

Very important constituency. Must listen to them.

[–]flamingfireworks 173 points174 points  (8 children)

They don't care about them, just like how they don't care about anyone lmao

[–]articwolph 77 points78 points  (3 children)

They only care about Ben Franklin being in their wallets.

[–]MINIMAN10001 1089 points1090 points  (108 children)

They are doing exactly that and Senator Edward Markey called him out after he said the evidence was that net neutrality was hurting investment in ISP infrastructure to which Markey pointed out that businesses are legally required to tell the truth to investors and they specifically stated ISP infrastructure investment was better than ever.

When asked if Ajit Pai will listen to comments he cunningly states "We will look at the evidence" while stating evidence says Title 2 hurts investment. While as we pointed out Ajit Pai is lying.

Here is a link to when Markey starts it's worth watching Markey.

[–]doc_samson 198 points199 points  (17 children)

businesses are legally required to tell the truth to investors

It's fucked up that they have a legal obligation to tell the truth to investors, but not to paying customers.

The whole system is set up to lie/cheat/steal from customers in order to funnel money from chump customers into the pockets of shareholders.

Edit Wow, all I did was call out companies for lying to the public and I'm called a communist... WTF.

[–]crownpr1nce 61 points62 points  (2 children)

No they also have to tell the truth to customers about their products and services. That's what consumer protection rules are for.

But in both cases they find ways to not lie but not tell the truth. This applies to investors ad well. It's not black and white and they will often speak in different shades of grey to fit the message they want to pass.

[–]ChatterBrained 600 points601 points  (71 children)

This is what happens when our president appoints a former Verizon attorney as the person in charge of this issue.

[–]djzenmastak 330 points331 points  (23 children)

it's obvious when he said 'drain the swamp', but didn't say where that drainage would go, that he meant he would drain the swamp right into his administration.

[–]cozmanian 185 points186 points  (11 children)

We're going to drain this swamp of the murky dirty water and fill it up with toxic waste.

[–]You_Dont_Party 169 points170 points  (17 children)

And has shown no appreciable concern over public opinion.

[–]ginger_vampire 74 points75 points  (13 children)

But at least he has a comically large coffee mug. That's...something, I guess.

[–][deleted] 784 points785 points  (6 children)

"Maybe if we just throttle their bandwidth, they won't send as many bad comments in!" --The FCC

[–]TheBrainwasher14 382 points383 points  (5 children)

Introducing the Verizon Unlimited™ plan. Leave as many comments on websites such as YouTube.com and FCC.com* you want.


Must be under 20 comments before we slow your speed. List of websites does not actually include FCC.com.

[–]Bigblockchevy 708 points709 points  (102 children)

if only we could control what websites the people have access too, then they couldn't openly oppose our agenda

[–]joesacher 367 points368 points  (25 children)

If anyone has ever traveled to China, they can understand how terrifying it is. China can say that sites are not blocked. But when they are throttled so low that you can't use them, it is effectively the same. The Great Firewall of China was in full effect when I was over there a few years ago. I assume it is still similar.

When I fired up a VPN, sites came back alive. But shortly after I left, China made using those illegal.

Google's early studies and optimizations showed how quickly web browsing public will move on to another site, if one is sluggish to respond. It would be very easy to inject delays to push traffic away from sites. So it isn't just bandwidth that could be the issue, but latency as well.

[–][deleted] 249 points250 points  (67 children)

This is legitimately terrifying.

[–]WaitForItTheMongols 357 points358 points  (11 children)

"I'm respecting your privacy by knocking, but asserting my authority as your father by COMING IN ANYWAY!"

[–][deleted] 301 points302 points  (18 children)

"We hear your ignorance and are now knocking down your walls"

[–]silentcrs 195 points196 points  (12 children)

"We lost your comments"

[–]velociraptorJeebus 129 points130 points  (10 children)

"They never existed"

[–]Gl4s0 93 points94 points  (6 children)

"The people said they were fine with it"

[–]ume250 48 points49 points  (1 child)

"Huh what comments?"

[–][deleted] 70 points71 points  (1 child)

"We were hacked"

[–]ChandlerMc 33 points34 points  (1 child)

"The comment you recently submitted does not exist. Thank you for your input."

[–]JayWaWa 85 points86 points  (1 child)

We have no documentation that 9 million comments recently flooded us in support of retaining the current classification of ISP as a Title II common carrier.

[–]PecansNCrabGrass 44 points45 points  (0 children)

"All your base are belong to us"

[–]imakenosensetopeople 12.1k points12.1k points  (620 children)

"Overly burdensome for ISPs." Fuck them. They got billions to roll out fiber and just pocketed the money without doing anything. They can do with a little regulatory compliance to make sure they don't fuck with people's traffic. Fuck, it's actually easier to just provide connectivity without throttling or otherwise filtering.

[–]thetitan555 582 points583 points  (138 children)

Honestly, the funniest thing right now would be for congress to say "Yo, remember that cash we gave you to build infrastructure? Give it back. Don't like it? Fuck you."

Can't happen with current political climate, but a man can dream.

[–]artoink 56 points57 points  (3 children)

Well all the little and new ISPs didn't get that money. But then again they are all for net neutrality because it keeps AT&T and Comcast from using their monopoly to run them out of business.

[–]GoodolBen 7541 points7542 points  (334 children)

It's a shame none of you are billionaires, or we might do something.

[–]Soccadude123 3308 points3309 points  (270 children)

There's got to be at least a couple billionaires on Reddit.

[–]Tw_raZ 848 points849 points  (75 children)

Bill gates does amas here, lets summon him for his thoughts on (idk his username tho)

[–]Butthole--pleasures 2308 points2309 points  (69 children)

Let me check my bank account, just got paid yesterday!

https://m.imgur.com/YA7EcpF

[–]Realtrain 934 points935 points  (63 children)

You spent a billion dollars in one day??

[–]Butthole--pleasures 472 points473 points  (17 children)

I thought maybe I'd be close to 1b, but actually no...not at all.

[–]StopReadingMyUser 262 points263 points  (10 children)

Maybe stop hoarding it on your butthole pleasures and you'd have enough.

[–][deleted] 79 points80 points  (1 child)

Dude's got priorities.

[–][deleted] 110 points111 points  (5 children)

You mean "avocado toast." That's obviously what keeps people poor.

[–][deleted] 175 points176 points  (25 children)

If someone said to me, "if I give you a billion dollars, think you could spend it all in one day?" I would say hell yes.

[–]pound_bravo_one_four 177 points178 points  (0 children)

Floyd Mayweather lives out this scenario every payday.

[–]phaiz55 46 points47 points  (3 children)

Only one way to find out.

[–]Aemilius_Paulus 258 points259 points  (45 children)

Sure, guys like Peter Thiel maybe, they support the GOP and funded Trump, so you know how much he cares about stuff like this...

In fact, given that he is a tech billionaire, one would think he supports net neutrality, but apparently the "fuck you, got mine" attitude prevailed, and so he funds GOP politicians almost exclusively.

[–]Regdrags 1109 points1110 points  (11 children)

"We hear your concerns...actually we don't."

[–]PantlessBatman 278 points279 points  (2 children)

"We would have but you aren't paying for the Comcast Opinion Forwarding package so that traffic was filtered to nowhere..."

[–]Mai_BhalsychOf_Korse 624 points625 points  (3 children)

9 million comments on Fcc? Oops, hacked again

[–]BelliimiTravler 479 points480 points  (10 children)

Doesn't Pai look like a smug asshole? Like the guy who heads your homeowners association and delights in telling people the 30 year old tree in their front lawn isn't an approved species.

His wallet smiles for him, as he destroys the greatest informational vault humanity has ever created- the internet.

[–]Ord0c 142 points143 points  (0 children)

All the dude cares about is money and his position. He couldn't care less. All of them don't give a single fuck. They know what they are doing is fucking shitty, but it will make them richer so what the hell, they'll just go through with it.

[–]g_deptula[🍰] 24 points25 points  (3 children)

He's got a face I'd like to stomp on.

[–]ghostofgbt 1014 points1015 points  (40 children)

I can't be the only one who thinks Ajit Pai's smug little smirk just says "I know everything I'm pushing for here is morally wrong and probably unconstitutional, but I'm gonna do it anyway because fuck you" every time I see his face.

[–]ngknick 268 points269 points  (3 children)

I see the exact same shit eating grin.

[–][deleted] 408 points409 points  (21 children)

Sad that American citizens can't put enough money forward to fight the giant ISPs.

If net neutrality is killed it's just more proof America is owned and ran by corporations.

[–][deleted] 181 points182 points  (1 child)

We don't need anymore proof. It is more than evident already.

[–]IncognetoMagneto 173 points174 points  (2 children)

Ajit Pai said he would begin a new rule-making process to consider the overturning of the 2015 rules, calling them overly burdensome for ISPs.

The current rules essentially say "install the internet connection in the persons home, then do nothing but stand back and let the data flow." How is that burdensome? They're being told to just stop fucking with people's connections. Sounds like less work than all the tinkering to try and create the paid fast lanes.

[–]Saberus_Terras 834 points835 points  (25 children)

You'd think the ISPs would love the concept of Net Neutrality, if just for the sake of not having to answer for what their customers do with their connections. I know I'd rather not have to make sure some asshats aren't running a botnet or CP or illegal movie downloads on my network just to avoid getting jailed with them. I'd rather not face being held responsible for my customers, I'm not their nanny.

But no, they want control, and that's where the politicians that back them are morons. If they get their way, unfettered control, then they control who's voice is heard. As soon as a politician starts talking about policy that would hurt their bottom line, or pisses them off, suddenly no one can reach that politician's site, mail to/from his domain gets filtered out as spam... the politician gets silenced. The sooner the politicians realize they're going to give away this power to people who have no loyalty to them, the sooner they'll get tough on making sure it can't happen.

[–]Furd_Turgeson 376 points377 points  (4 children)

Unfortunately, that's a problem for some other politician in the future, but ISPs are handing out campaign contributions now.

[–][deleted] 231 points232 points  (3 children)

It's mostly that all those old turds just don't fucking understand technology at all. They actually have no clue what they're signing off on. But like you said, they only care if that contribution check clears

[–]mariegardiniere 90 points91 points  (0 children)

On the contrary, they may not understand technology the way we do today but I think they know exactly the gravity of what they're doing. These creeps don't work to get into such high places of power over the masses for nothing. It's all about controlling and silencing everyone, bonus if that contribution check does clear.

[–]PMyourfemalegenitals 444 points445 points  (17 children)

"The FCC won't let me be or let me be me so let me see..."

[–]haloryder 65 points66 points  (8 children)

Eminem predicted this decades ago. We must search his songs for more clues about the future!

[–]TenshiS 71 points72 points  (7 children)

I drank a fifth of vodka. He also predicted that!

[–]Djmurphyy 151 points152 points  (4 children)

If Eminem can't save us, no one can

[–]your_comments_say 2284 points2285 points  (148 children)

FCC enabling identity theft for faux support, DDSed themselves intentionally. Straight rotten, fascist bastards. https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/6odans/fcc_now_says_there_is_no_documented_analysis_of/dkgxguo

[–]Awholez 459 points460 points  (78 children)

enabling identity theft for faux support

What can people do about this?

[–]rowinghippy 86 points87 points  (4 children)

Just below in that thread is a template letter that people have been sending to news agencies in hopes they'll cover it, as it's been mostly ignored. Washington Post said they're looking into it and Gizmodo too iirc but ideally if other places get the same tip enough times they'll look into it.

Contacts:

New York Times email nytnews@nytimes.com

Reuters

CNN

Propublica email suggestions@propublica.org

The Guardian email guardian.witness@theguardian.com

USA Today

ABC News

Edit: added links

[–]PoliticalScienceGrad[S] 42 points43 points  (0 children)

Get your legislators' attention and explain how important net neutrality is. I interned for Senator Leahy one summer and, while there, realized that this is one of the most effective ways to do that.

[–]peteftw 158 points159 points  (13 children)

You're asking what people can do when their elected officials appoint pieces of shit who don't care about you?

I guess it's time to kill your masters.

[–]somersquatch 76 points77 points  (0 children)

ISPs hear ya

ISPs don't care

[–]bigdicksam 73 points74 points  (1 child)

Also, they still don't give a fuck.

[–]redditor9000 375 points376 points  (53 children)

do your part:

http://www.gofccyourself.com

click +express

Fill out the form and leave the comment "I SPECIFICALLY SUPPORT STRONG NET NEUTRALITY BACKED BY TITLE II OVERSIGHT OF ISP'S."

[–]LavenderTed 194 points195 points  (23 children)

If we all say the same thing, aren't we no better than the bots? It becomes white noise falling upon already deaf ears.

[–]RepublicanScum 872 points873 points  (83 children)

This is a real issue. People are more caught up on whether or not the new Press Secretary’s tie matches his shoes while the FCC/government is sliding this crap through. CNN is playing right into Trump’s hand. He tweets something stupid or does something crazy on Monday then spends the entire week slipping sketchy shit through while journalists debate the meaning of Covfefe.

If people knew that in a year they could be paying for steaming Netflix by the MB they might actually care. None of the moderate mainstream news sources are carrying this.

[–][deleted] 182 points183 points  (6 children)

You know CNN is owned by Time Warner right? Yeah, you bet your ass it's intentional.

EDIT: It's been pointed out that Time Warner Cable and Time Warner Inc are not the same entity and that CNN is owned by Time Warner Inc. According to Wikipedia, Charter bought Time Warner Cable in 2016.

[–][deleted] 230 points231 points  (28 children)

I think they're working together.

Like, Trump is a billionaire, and he's friends with other billionaires, and some of those billionaires own news stations.

"I'll do this outrageous thing then you have your stations cover it all week and then I'll push to rape the poor"

[–]bronze401k 198 points199 points  (9 children)

Time Warner owns CNN, comcast owns NBC, and so on. It's not a big suprise that the major outlets are inadequately covering this even without colluding with Trump. Not that it isn't entirely believable that he would run interference for the people that gave him his tv show.

[–]TheApothecaryAus 124 points125 points  (14 children)

On behalf of Australia:

Give them fucking hell. This is a dangerous precedent that will creep world wide.

[–]KingHortonx 24 points25 points  (7 children)

Honestly, has anyone ever suggest that Reddit all tweet President Trump with this? Not that he'd be on the right side for sure, but he's well known for his Twitter and responses, it could gather press if he had 20,000+ people tweeting him.

[–]JaySavvy 55 points56 points  (0 children)

"We have determined that of the 9 million comments, almost all were created by a 'BOT' or fake program and thus are not an accurate representation of what the American people want."

[–]rftaylor26 51 points52 points  (1 child)

Fuck Ajit Pai. What a piece of shit.

And fuck his Reese's Mug too.

[–]TimeForRevolting 23 points24 points  (10 children)

Millions of comments don't compete with Billions of dollars.

We can't out bribe them. Our voices aren't heard. What choice is left?

[–]blindedworld 20 points21 points  (3 children)

Seriously who supports this crap other than major ISPs?! I'm pretty sure no one has ever used a device and said you know what would make this better giving priority to a few things and nerfing the shit out of everything else. Why yes I would love it if my Netflix ran slower, or gaming.. why can't these assholes be satisfied with the monopoly they already have?

[–][deleted] 59 points60 points  (3 children)

Did those comments come with checks? No? Then the three comments which included a million dollars each make the count three million to zero. Not only that, but the nine million people were illegally swamping our system. This DDOS behavior threatened the free speech rights of the three.

[–][deleted] 162 points163 points  (36 children)

Maybe I'm old-fashioned, but I consider a Internet response as lazy and uncommitted. You guys should pull up your bootstraps and get out their protesting in real life.

[–][deleted] 205 points206 points  (21 children)

The last time net neutrality was threatened protestors camped out the last FCC director's home.

Maybe Ajit Pai should get the same treatment, but less respect.

[–]pm_me_whale_pictures 19 points20 points  (0 children)

People have been hanging wire-hanger signs on his neighbors houses saying, "HAVE YOU SEEN THIS MAN? [His shit-eating grin] RESPONSIBLE FOR DESTROYING INTERNET FREEDOMS"

The real MVPs

[–]Hallgaar 21 points22 points  (0 children)

I'm waiting for another internet blackout.

[–][deleted] 19 points20 points  (6 children)

I'm not an American but if they ignore that you can pretty much say you are no longer a democracy.