
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai canceled his appearance at CES because of death threats - moonka
https://www.recode.net/2018/1/4/16850956/fcc-chairman-ajit-pai-ces-death-threats
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countbackula
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.

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moonka
I'm no fan of his, but he has been getting a lot of hate lately. After the
signs[1] at his home, I imagine he's a little rattled.

[1] [http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/fcc-chairman-ajit-pais-
fam...](http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/fcc-chairman-ajit-pais-family-
harassed-over-proposed-net-neutrality-rollback/article/2641854)

~~~
tw04
When you're a public official who intentionally and gleefully ignores the
people you're paid to represent, I guess you shouldn't be surprised when those
people get extremely angry with you. You chose to ignore them to enrich
yourself at the detriment of an entire nation... And now you want us to feel
sorry that someone posted a sign in front of your house? HAH!

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itronitron
So with the repeal of net neutrality the FCC can't afford to have Pai video-
conference in?

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downrightmike
He could use Cisco's Telepresence with sure mute technology:
[https://vimeo.com/53993957](https://vimeo.com/53993957)

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MollyR
I can't say I like Pai, but I find death threats even worse.

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sandworm101
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.

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mrguyorama
While I understand and agree with you, I feel it's important to note that
death threats are never okay, even if (and especially if) "everyone gets them"

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sitkack
The 8th thing?
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFhT6H6pRWg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFhT6H6pRWg)
I think it is more likely that he didn't want to face criticism. I am going to
have to call cite.

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jancsika
From that video:

"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

~~~
sitkack
I love how he trivializes and mocks the citizenship's use of the internet as a
funhouse of mirrors for blubs.

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NotSammyHagar
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.

[1] [https://krebsonsecurity.com/2017/12/kansas-man-killed-in-
swa...](https://krebsonsecurity.com/2017/12/kansas-man-killed-in-swatting-
attack/)

~~~
Zarath
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.

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dayaz36
There was also a bomb threat when voting on net neutrality, but he definitely
didn't miss that.

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arduanika
also breaking: Internet cancels appearance at FCC hearings because of death
threats.

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thisacctforreal
How about threats-of-butt-probes-before-next-flight?

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)

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jwalgenbach
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.

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CodeWriter23
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.

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f00_
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

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username223
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.

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prepend
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?

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wmf
Maybe he should hire private security and send the bill to Comcast.

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rayj
Death threats are Very convenient for him. Makes him look persecuted while he
sells out to comcast.

Judging by the number of fake net neutrality comments submitted, I bet my
deceased grandfather called in a couple death threats too.

