Group Sues FCC in Bid to Obtain Records on Leadership Net Neutrality Contacts With Industry
American Oversight asked a court to force the FCC to release documents about agency leadership contacts with telecom industry parties on efforts to roll back net neutrality regulation. The group said the FCC "repeatedly delayed" releasing records in response to…
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two Freedom of Information Act requests in April seeking information on meetings and correspondence among Chairman Ajit Pai, five senior staffers, Congress and telecom companies. “The FCC has made it clear that they’re ignoring feedback from the general public, so we’re going to court to find out who they’re actually listening to about Net Neutrality," said Austin Evers, AO executive director, in a release Wednesday. "If the Trump administration is going to let industry lobbyists rewrite the rules of the Internet for millions of Americans, we’re going to make them do it in full view of the public.” A complaint seeking injunctive relief from U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia said the commission violated FOIA time limits and improperly withheld records (American Oversight v. FCC, No. 17-1492). The FCC didn't comment. Another 167,669 public comments were posted Wednesday in net neutrality docket 17-108 as of late afternoon, bringing the cumulative total to 12.6 million. Tuesday saw 1.27 million comments posted after only 203,519 were posted Monday. The commission said 1.5 million comments filed over the weekend created a backlog (see 1707240070).