Conservatives Opposed to Internet Regulation Won FCC Comment Period by Landslide

by Phil Kerpen, Contributing Author: The Sunlight Foundation is confirming in a new report that American Commitment, a national advocacy organization, won the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) second comment period with its “Do Not Regulate the Internet” campaign. American Commitment delivered 808,363 citizen comments opposing any regulation of the Internet to the FCC before the end of its official comment period in September.

“We’re pleased that the Sunlight Foundation is finally confirming that American Commitment and Americans opposed to regulation of the Internet won the FCC comment period. Better late than never,” said Phil Kerpen, president of American Commitment. “The American people have spoken clearly in expressing their opposition to any effort by the FCC to impose regulations on the Internet. A Washington takeover of the Internet would be disastrous for free speech, commerce, and the future of the Internet as a sphere of innovation.”

The Sunlight Foundation’s original report—which only analyzed comments made to the FCC several weeks before the comment period closed—portrayed the American people as staunchly in favor of regulation of the Internet. But the Sunlight Foundations new report tells a different story. The report admits, “In marked contrast to the first round, anti-net neutrality commenters mobilized in force for this round, and comprised the majority of overall comments submitted, at 60%. We attribute this shift almost entirely to the form-letter initiatives of a single organization, American Commitment, who are single-handedly responsible for 56.5% of the comments in this round.”

American Commitment launched a massive effort to expose the false narrative being peddled by the organizers of the Internet “slowdown” campaign, which has misled press reporters with false claims that the comments coming in to the FCC support, rather than oppose “reclassifying” the Internet as a “public utility” subject to federal bureaucratic controls. Its petition drive was extremely successful by all measures—which is now being recognized by the Sunlight Foundation. The group is now mobilizing for a major push to get Congress to intercede and stop the FCC.
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Phil Kerpen is president of American Commitment and a contributing author for the ARRA News Service.He is on Twitter and on Facebook.

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