Yesterday, the FCC released the full text of the citizen comments from their hotly debated set of Internet rules that would give the go ahead for ISPs to charge sites and services for faster connection speeds to users and hurt the open Internet. And whose help are they looking to enlist for the almost 2.5 million comments just from the most recent batch? Why, the Internet’s, of course.
They did the same thing this summer with the over 1 million remarks that were received in the first round of open public comments, but this most recent round is significantly larger and has made the “Open Internet” docket “the most commented upon rulemaking in the agency’s history, with more than 3.9 million submissions to date,” according to the FCC.
It’s their hope that allowing the public to go through the comments will give journalists, the public, and the FCC themselves a better understanding of how everyone feels about the new rules. “As before, we encourage those with the requisite technical skills to analyze the raw data and build visualizations or other tools and to share them with the public,” wrote Gigi B. Sohn, Special Counsel for External Affairs, in the FCC blog post.
Hang on. I think I have the skills they’re looking for, and I’ve arranged some of the comments into the perfect visualization to help the FCC understand how the public feels:
(via Gizmodo, image via Stephen Melkisethian)
- You can also read the full “Open Internet” rules for yourself
- The FCC is also working toward lifting cell phone bans on airplanes
- They fined networks a bunch of money for airing a fake emergency alert movie trailer
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