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Dem Lawmakers, Others Express Outrage Over FCC Vote to Repeal Net Neutrality

Federal Communications Commission chairman Ajit Pai / Getty
December 14, 2017

Democratic lawmakers and other social media users voiced their outrage at the Federal Communications Commission's vote on Thursday to repeal the net neutrality regulations instituted by the Obama administration.

The Obama-era Title II rules, first implemented in 2015, classified internet service providers as public utilities, rather than information services, for the first time, giving the government broad power to regulate them and how companies manage traffic over their own networks.

Under the Trump administration, the FCC has taken steps to reverse the regulations and officially voted to repeal net neutrality on Thursday on a party line vote.

The vote was led by FCC chairman Ajit Pai, who has received death threats for his support of repealing net neutrality rules.

Democratic lawmakers quickly castigated the FCC vote to repeal the regulations, decrying the move as a threat to a free and open internet.

Others on social media predicted that, without the rules, suicide rates and bullying will increase while jobs for actors and singers will decrease.

https://twitter.com/b2nks/status/941340922528354304

Others expressed their outrage with the FCC's decision.

Some social media users claimed they already experienced a change in their internet.

https://twitter.com/StephenSeanFord/status/941381999691907072

Mary Emily O'Hara, a segment producer for MSNBC, took solace in the fact that there will be an Ocean's Eleven movie remake with an all-female cast.

Actor and former White House Associate Director of Public Engagement Kal Penn called Pai the "worst kind of uncle."

Companies like Netflix and Twitter criticized the repeal of net neutrality. Netflix called the two-year-old regulations "protections that ushered in an unprecedented era of innovation, creativity, and civic engagement."

CNN described the vote as the "end of the internet as we know it," before changing the headline.

https://twitter.com/Timodc/status/941376737937707008

Published under: FCC , Net Neutrality