Ajit Pai, the man who killed net neutrality, enacted a series of industry-friendly deregulatory moves for big telecom, and drank from a gigantic mug, is no longer around to terrorize the internet. The FCC confirmed to Motherboard that Pai is officially gone:"Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai today concluded his four years as Chairman, eight years as a Commissioner, and twelve years as an employee of the agency,” the agency said.
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His official FCC Twitter account, where he antagonized people who criticized him, has been deleted.
Pai stood out among the sea of Trump’s corrupt political employees because he was effective and he survived the entire administration. The former Verizon lawyer fought against net neutrality and won, then danced the Harlem Shake on its grave in one of the biggest cringe videos ever posted online.“By the time I turn in my badge, I will have spent a total 4,557 days working here,” Pai said in a goodbye video posted to his personal Twitter account. That’s almost 4,500 days of a giant coffee cup, embarrassing posts, and bad policy.
The consequences of his leadership will be with us for decades. He rolled back decades of regulation and transferred power to broadband companies on an unprecedented scale.Here is a list of harmful nonsense Pai and his FCC did over the last four years:
Killed net neutrality
Approved T-Mobile / Sprint merger
Repeatedly released reports that claimed U.S. broadband is fine
Defended murder of net neutrality in court
Flubbed Puerto Rico hurricane disaster response
Slow-walked and obstructed investigation into telecom company sale of your location data
Said FTC would protect net neutrality (it didn’t, and couldn’t)
Falsely claimed killing net neutrality was good for broadband access (it wasn’t)
Refused to brief Congress about telecom companies’ sale of their customers’ phone location data
Helped Comcast and other major telecom companies in their pursuit of monopolistic power
Oversaw America’s falling rank in an annual “Internet Freedom” index
Allowed Verizon to throttle California firefighters’ data while they were fighting unprecedented wildfires
Invented a DDoS attack that shut down the FCC’s net neutrality comment system
Lied to public about that fake DDoS attack that shut down the agency’s net neutrality comment system
Lied to Congress about that fake DDoS attack
Didn’t detect that dead people were leaving comments on net neutrality comment system
Refused to change the definition of ‘broadband’
Demanded $200 to release emails about his giant mug
Allowed scammers to submit fake comments about net neutrality under the names of two sitting senators
Did that dumbass Harlem Shake thing with a pizzagate conspiracy theorist
Became a rubber stamp for Sinclair Media and
Tried to kill a broadband assistance program that subsidized internet connections for the economically unstable and poor
Got a literal gun from the NRA for his “courage” in killing net neutrality
Was investigated by his own agency for alleged corruption as he pushed to dismantle media consolidation rules
Published report claiming broadband market was magically fixed by repealing net neutrality
Ignored 22 million comments supporting net neutrality
Tried to reclassify cell phone data service as “broadband internet”
Allowed phone call rates for incarcerated people to skyrocket
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