While I don't doubt the legitimacy of the death threats, I can't help but to think Pai is taking advantage of the situation in order to fashion himself as a martyr figure, especially in the eyes of Trump's hyper-reactive base.
While this may very well be true, I encourage everyone to consider deeply whether you think this to be likely because of the specifics of the situation, or because you disagree with Ajit Pai's policies.
Also in the future, be consistently skeptical when you hear news stories about people you are sympathetic to also saying they've been experiencing tons of death threats or harassment online.
Such threats have to be taken with a grain of salt. Daniel Tosh famously gets thousands of death threats, all from fans. Anyone who has run a website or had a clip go viral has received such threats. Many a cop or prosecutor has still gone to work after receiving much more personal and specific threats. I interviewed for an internship once where I was asked point blank whether I would be able to work the day after some angry person screamed such a threat at me in court. For a controversial federal official to take pathetic online threats as a real danger, absent any actual evidence, is at best a convenient reason to avoid an appearance. At worst, it's plain cowardice.
"Recently there's been quite a bit of conversation about my plan to restore internet freedom."
Tom Wheeler certainly wasn't a paragon of courage and clarity before he started to feel the pressure to reclassify ISPs under Title II. But before that, I sure don't remember him taking his opponents' own language like "internet freedom" and brazenly applying it to his own position.
Threats to hurt someone are always out of line. Did you read that the recent source of the swatting attack that killed the poor innocent person walking out of his house also is apparently the guy who called in the bomb threat before the vote for network neutrality at the fcc [1].
There are sadly people out there who could hurt any public official. He and everyone should be safe, but I also think he doesn't want to face a very very angry public about his joyous destruction of n.n.
Are they really though? Violence, and the threat of it, is literally what keeps society together at all, and what enforces all of our laws.
Kind of sad to read this thread and see everyone sitting on their high horse thinking they are amazing people for being non-violent while this guy gets away with what is probably worse than murder. When did humanity ever reach such a pathetic state where we let people just walk over us like this?
You think Reddit posts and Hackernews posts are going to ever change anything? These people are probably just laughing at us twiddling our thumbs pretending to actually do something.
Not in favor of death threats, but if you are a public official and you do something so unpopular without a clear moral agenda (such as equal rights in the 60s) that it results in the vast majority of the people you ought to represent being so outraged that some threaten your life, maybe you ought to reexamine your policy choices.
Vast majority of your friends and like-minded people does not imply a “vast majority”. The sad reality is the actual vast majority of people don’t have a clue what Net Neutrality means, or what is implied by its repeal.
So as far as net neutrality goes: it's very vague, in favor of companies like Netflix that want cheap peering(?) at the expense of ISPs (which are acquiring each other, getting huge similar to before Bell was broken up). It's a corporation vs corporation fight
Why aren't ISPs public utilities? These technologies were developed using tax payer money at DARPA, or in government sanctioned monopolies like Bell Labs
I would be interested to hear more about the relationship between South Korea's subsidy of internet and the rise of starcraft and the high tech service economy there
Weak. The person or people issuing death threats are idiots, but my guess is that Pai seized upon a probably-not-credible threat as an excuse to avoid being utterly humiliated in a public forum. Accountability is not his style.
It definitely could be. But FCC commissioner doesn’t get a security detail. And if you go to local police they aren’t going to fly people around to protect you, they’ll just tell you to lie low.
In his situation, would you risk your life at a big public event?
[+] [-] countbackula|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] moonka|8 years ago|reply
[1] http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/fcc-chairman-ajit-pais-fam...
[+] [-] caminante|8 years ago|reply
Your argument doesn't make sense.
[+] [-] DanAndersen|8 years ago|reply
Also in the future, be consistently skeptical when you hear news stories about people you are sympathetic to also saying they've been experiencing tons of death threats or harassment online.
[+] [-] itronitron|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] downrightmike|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] MollyR|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sandworm101|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Afforess|8 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] paul7986|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sitkack|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jancsika|8 years ago|reply
"Recently there's been quite a bit of conversation about my plan to restore internet freedom."
Tom Wheeler certainly wasn't a paragon of courage and clarity before he started to feel the pressure to reclassify ISPs under Title II. But before that, I sure don't remember him taking his opponents' own language like "internet freedom" and brazenly applying it to his own position.
Did he ever do anything like that?
Edit: added apostrophe
[+] [-] NotSammyHagar|8 years ago|reply
There are sadly people out there who could hurt any public official. He and everyone should be safe, but I also think he doesn't want to face a very very angry public about his joyous destruction of n.n.
[1] https://krebsonsecurity.com/2017/12/kansas-man-killed-in-swa...
[+] [-] Zarath|8 years ago|reply
Kind of sad to read this thread and see everyone sitting on their high horse thinking they are amazing people for being non-violent while this guy gets away with what is probably worse than murder. When did humanity ever reach such a pathetic state where we let people just walk over us like this?
You think Reddit posts and Hackernews posts are going to ever change anything? These people are probably just laughing at us twiddling our thumbs pretending to actually do something.
[+] [-] dayaz36|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] arduanika|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] thisacctforreal|8 years ago|reply
I'm pretty sure that one is more likely.
(edit: I interpreted "Internet" as in "Internet users", but I now see it was a joke for the Internet itself)
[+] [-] jwalgenbach|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] CodeWriter23|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] f00_|8 years ago|reply
Why aren't ISPs public utilities? These technologies were developed using tax payer money at DARPA, or in government sanctioned monopolies like Bell Labs
I would be interested to hear more about the relationship between South Korea's subsidy of internet and the rise of starcraft and the high tech service economy there
[+] [-] unknown|8 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] username223|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] prepend|8 years ago|reply
In his situation, would you risk your life at a big public event?
[+] [-] unknown|8 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] 1_2__4|8 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] ixacto|8 years ago|reply
Judging by the number of fake net neutrality comments submitted, I bet my deceased grandfather called in a couple death threats too.