Stephen Colbert Destroyed the Net Neutrality Decision - and the Man Responsible for It

By Jack Holmes, Esquire

15 December 17

Power to the telecomms!

et neutrality is complicated and possibly boring to talk about, which is why it was nixed Thursday without all that much of a fight. Yes, there were 22 million public comments to the FCC—2 million of which were discovered to have been filed under stolen identities by the New York attorney general—but there wasn't exactly a Repeal and Go Fuck Yourself-level reaction from the public. Stephen Colbert noticed the goings-on, however, and pointed to a key detail surrounding the behavior of the telecomm companies that actually wanted this thing to happen:

While it helps to understand the technical background of the net neutrality debate, all you really need to know is this: Some of the most massive, unaccountable corporations in the history of the world fought hard for the right to scrap it. They will now have the ability to, as Colbert highlighted, "block, slow down, or prioritize" web traffic based on what people are willing to pay to go different places on the web. Do you think these giant corporations invested all this time and money but won't be looking to capitalize?

The other thing you need to know is the person largely responsible for this mess, Ajit Pai, is this guy:

If you have lost the will to live, you're processing this correctly. Pai is a former Verizon attorney who "joked" about a week ago about being a shill for the telecomm giant. He was appointed by Barack Obama to the FCC, and elevated to chairman by President Trump. He oversaw this process, and handed this power to an outfit like Time Warner Cable—I mean Spectrum.

Elsewhere, Jimmy Kimmel was playing the same tune: