Free Republic

Aimee Jorjani, chairman of the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation Why is a Trump appointee stopping progress on America’s efforts to compete with China in the vital arena of 5G technology? That’s the question being asked in the wireless industry, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the White House itself. In June of 2019, Aimee Jorjani was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as the first full-time chairman of the obscure Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP). The council is a creation of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) and its job is to “promote the preservation, enhancement, and sustainable use...

Ajit Pai, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), has been a one-man wrecking machine to China’s plans to leapfrog U.S. military and technological superiority by becoming the first to operationalize 5G. Now, however, Beijing is fighting back with delay tactics which, if not handled properly, can lead to China pulling a fast one on the FCC and, by default, America’s national security. For those who aren’t familiar, 5G is the next-generation wireless network that will bring download and processing speeds to just a fraction of what they are currently. China has seen the new technology as a way to...

A California man was sentenced to 20 months in prison on Friday after pleading guilty for threatening to kill the family of U.S. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai over the regulator’s successful effort to repeal net neutrality rules. The Justice Department said Markara Man, 33, of Norwalk, California, sent the email threats “in hopes it would cause (Pai) to reverse his position on net neutrality.” The FCC did not immediately comment after the sentencing by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. […] In November 2018, Tyler Barriss pleaded guilty for calling in a bomb threat...

Last year, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai warned that it was Big Tech “edge providers,” such as Google, Twitter, and Facebook, are the real censorship threat, and not Internet Service Providers (ISPs) previously targeted under net neutrality.In a speech last November, Pai solidified his stance, claiming that large Internet companies, such as Google, Facebook, and Twitter, support net neutrality to “cement their dominance in the Internet economy.” “Now look: I love Twitter, and I use it all the time. But let’s not kid ourselves; when it comes to an open Internet, Twitter is part of the problem,” Pai proclaimed. “The company has...

Republican Rep. Jason Lewis told Fox News he has contacted the police over threats to him and even his daughters in the wake of reports about controversial statements he made as a radio show host. "It was serious enough for my office to alert the Capitol Police," Lewis told Fox News. The Minnesota congressman said his daughters were threatened in sick messages received by his office. It marks the latest in a wave of threats against not just Republican lawmakers themselves but their families. Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y., also revealed threats against his daughters this month, telling Todd Starnes that...

A California man was arrested Friday by FBI agents on charges of threatening to kill Federal Communications Commission chairmanr Ajit Pai over Pai's role in the Trump administration's repeal of net neutrality protections. The Justice Department said in a press release that Markara Man, 33, of Norwalk, California made three threatening emails to accounts operated by Pai last December around the time the FCC voted to repeal net neutrality rules passed during the Obama administration. The first email blamed Pai for the suicide of a child Man apparently linked to the repeal of net neutrality, while the subsequent emails contained...

A man was arrested in Los Angeles on Friday on charges of threatening to murder the family of Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai, according to the Justice Department. The department alleged in a news release that 33-year-old Markara Man threatened the FCC chairman's family because he was "angry" about the repeal of net neutrality regulations and hoped to "scare" the chairman. In court documents filed with the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, a police officer with the Arlington County Police Department said there is probable cause to believe that Man sent a series of emails...

What is it about the internet that makes it so the government just can't seem to keep its greedy paws off of it? Every few years Congress makes a play to regulate and tax the internet, and free marketeers need to be ever vigilant in swatting them down. First, we have the threat of a new tax on internet sales even when the company in question has no physical presence in the state. Forcing companies to pay for state and local services they don't use: This is simply a revenue grab by states, to the tune of as much as...

Everyone take a moment of silence please — the free and open internet is all but dead. In December 2017 the FCC, under chairman Ajit Pai, voted to repeal net neutrality, signaling the end of the open internet as we know it. The decision was controversial at the time, with everyone from Alyssa Milano to Reddit calling out the FCC in the lead-up to the vote, but the the vote was just the first step toward repeal. To enact the change, the FCC would have to officially list the ruling and provide a timeline for it. That listing came in...

Ajit Pai has been at the heart of the net neutrality debate and he would like to take this time to address all of the internet trolls with a PSA. (video)

The FCC (Federal Communications Commission ) voted (3-2 vote) on Thursday to roll back Obama era legislation that established far reaching rules regarding how ISPs (internet service providers) should treat traffic on their networks. The 2015 net neutrality legislation was one of the most important regulatory action of Barack Obama’s administration, and it required ISPs to treat all internet traffic the same, i.e. without slowing/blocking content, nor providing “discriminatory broadband” for favored services or websites. According to the GOP, the rolling back of net-neutrality legislation is a good thing, as they seem to favor a “deregulated” internet if you like,...

State attorneys general are now threatening lawsuits against the federal government's repeal of "net neutrality" rules. New York's attorney general says he'll lead a multistate lawsuit to stop the Federal Communications Commission's rollback of rules that guaranteed equal access to the internet. Democrat Eric Schneiderman has been investigating fake public comments submitted to the FCC during the net neutrality comment process. Schneiderman says his analysis shows 2 million comments stole the identities of real Americans, including dead people and children. The Washington state attorney general has likewise vowed to sue over net neutrality.

WASHINGTON — The US Federal Communications Commission voted along party lines Thursday to repeal landmark 2015 rules aimed at ensuring a free and open internet, setting up a court fight over a move that could recast the digital landscape. The approval of FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s proposal marks a victory for internet service providers like AT&T Inc., Comcast Corp. and Verizon Communications Inc. and hands them power over what content consumers can access. Democrats, Hollywood and companies like Google parent Alphabet Inc. and Facebook Inc. had urged Pai, a Republican appointed by President Donald Trump, to keep the Obama-era rules...

The Federal Communications Commission voted Thursday to repeal net neutrality rules, over the objection of Democrats in Congress, Internet activists and online companies. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, Commissioner Michael O’Rielly, and Commissioner Brendan Carr, all Republicans, supported the proposed rollback of the Obama-era rules. Democratic Commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Jessica Rosenworcel opposed the change.

The perpetual outrage mob on the left has adopted an unlikely target of late – the brainy, affable head of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Chairman Ajit Pai. Pai is now flanked by a Homeland Security protective detail everywhere he goes because of a deluge of specific, credible threats of violence toward him and his young children. He's also facing an onslaught of racist smears and attacks too obscene to quote – including an image asserting that Pai is Osama bin Laden after shaving his beard.Members of Congress are coming under similar attack for supporting Pai's signature proposal. The most...

The “internet poll” has become a familiar device with which to solicit reader feedback and drive engagement on topics from sports and entertainment to law and politics. But, with obvious flaws in polling methodology (e.g., random sampling, representative samples), not to mention vulnerability to fraud, the results of such polls carry little if any scientific value. They are a marketing tool only; except, it seems, when it comes to formulating federal regulations.Providing a public comment period before federal regulations can be finalized is a legal and long-standing component of federal rulemaking. Typically the window for public comments is 30 to...

FCC chair Ajit Pai tore into edge providers Tuesday (Nov. 28) in a speech in which he defended deregulating ISPs.Pai told a Future of Internet Freedom conference in Washington that edge providers like Twitter are a bigger threat to the Open Internet than internet service providers, who were targeted as the gatekeepers under his Democratic predecessor, Tom Wheeler. He says edge providers "routinely block and discriminate" and the government should not abet their efforts to dominate the internet.In a speech in which Pai defended his order to roll back Title II, he said that some Silicon Valley players have been criticizing the...

Regulations: When FCC Chairman Ajit Pai announced plans to repeal the Obama administration's heavy-handed "net neutrality" regulations, critics acted as if the world were coming to an end. Actual consumers, however, aren't likely to notice any difference, because the "problem" those rules were supposed to solve has always been wildly exaggerated.

Net neutrality activists left signs at Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Ajit Pai’s house Saturday, telling his children that their father was an “evil” man who “murdered” democracy. The cardboard signs list Pai’s children by name, telling them that “you don’t have to be evil.” Pai’s leadership of the FCC has been fraught with criticism due to his rejection of net neutrality policies advocated by former President Barack Obama’s administration. The FCC announced last week that it plans to role back net neutrality rules, triggering protests outside the Pai family’s home for the second time this year.

SIERRA VISTA — Unsolicited automated phone calls are a top source of complaint for the Federal Communications Commission, which is way the government agency is trying to enact new restrictions in order to protect consumers. A proposal brought forth by FCC Chairman Ajit Pai last month would allow voice service providers to block certain calls that “falsely appear” to be unable to make outgoing or taking incoming calls, according to an October FCC fact sheet. The commission estimated that U.S. consumers received more than 2.4 billion automated calls per month in 2016, many of which included a caller with a...