Trump's FCC chairman accuses Twitter of silencing conservatives

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: CNNMoney

Trump's FCC chairman accuses Twitter of silencing conservatives

by Seth Fiegerman @sfiegerman

November 28, 2017: 3:49 PM ET

The head of the Federal Communications Commission is going on the offensive against tech companies in an effort to make his case for repealing net neutrality rules. ... FCC chairman Ajit Pai on Tuesday accused Twitter (TWTR, Tech30) and other tech companies of being disingenuous by arguing for a free and open internet while they "routinely block or discriminate against content they don't like."

The remarks came as part of a speech on his recently revealed plan to unravel Obama-era net neutrality protections at a telecom policy event in Washington DC. The 2015 rules were intended to keep the internet open and fair by preventing broadband providers from playing favorites with online content.

Pai argued that it's actually the "edge providers," the FCC's term for services like Google (GOOGL, Tech30) and Facebook (FB, Tech30), that "are a much bigger actual threat to an open Internet than broadband providers, especially when it comes to discrimination on the basis of viewpoint."

Related: Trump's FCC moves quickly to upend internet, media rules

Pai, a Republican commissioner appointed to head the agency by President Trump, specifically called out Twitter for appearing to have a "double standard when it comes to suspending or de-verifying conservative users' accounts as opposed to those of liberal users. ... He did not specify which conservative accounts he was referring to. Twitter recently removed the verification from several prominent users, including controversial conservative commentator Laura Loomer and white nationalists like Richard Spencer and Jason Kessler.
....

CNNMoney (New York)
First published November 28, 2017: 3:20 PM ET

Read more: http://money.cnn.com/2017/11/28/technology/ajit-pai-tech/index.html

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So does Ajit Pai want Twitter to stop de-verifying Nazis?

Link to tweet

[Eliot Rosewater]

1. Wow, we really are completely fucked. We meaning patriots.

[theaocp]

2. This motherfucker needs to stick his head in an oven.

Srsly, he is cancer-of-the-AIDS-of-the-eye. Jeebus.

[SharonClark]

3. Do you need an intervention?

[theaocp]

4. No, I'm inviting him to end his fucking misery. n/t

[pecosbob]

5. and this is how Democracy perishes...

[dbackjon]

6. So you are FOR Net Neutrality?

[BumRushDaShow]

7. So if the TOS of a "private" entity

is not what THEY like when they shill "government off my back" as a credo, then they apparently plan to selectively put their big feet on that entity's back post haste, further showing how tremendously hypocritical they really are.

[Norbert]

8. Maybe we can have a Fairness Doctrine that includes tech companies

as well as radio and TV.

Think he'd go go for it?

Nah, I didn't think so.

[RainCaster]

9. Sinclair Media will more than make up for it...

but this douche wants to have companies be unregulated and able to throttle or edit to their hearts content.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

10. Just to fuck with him. They should temporarily close his account. nt

[Kali]

15. ...

[Bengus81]

11. So now this twit and Republicans WANT Government in private businesses life?

Talk about HYPOCRISY. Guberment intervention is GOOD according to Neo Cons,when it fits THEIR needs.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

12. Pai confusing policing with extortion and censorship.

[PSPS]

13. LOL. And this guy went to Harvard.

Any private entity is entitled to "routinely block or discriminate against content they don't like." Shall we ridicule Google because they removed objectionable content from Youtube, as they were embarrassed into doing last week because of all the child-exploitation videos it carries? After all, Google is "routinely blocking or discriminating against content they don't like." Pai can just start his own Twitter or other platform and push all the "content" he personally likes to the exclusion of all else. That would be his right like any other private company or person. That's what Fox and Sinclair do.

Pai is just a "true believer" ideologue giving away the Internet to his ISP financiers.

[MountCleaners]

14. Laura Loomer...

She is the one banned by Uber and Lyft because she complained about not being able to find a driver who wasn't a Muslim.

http://www.businessinsider.com/uber-bans-laura-loomer-far-right-activist-who-tweeted-2017-11

[UpInArms]

16. Am thinking that she didnt need a ride

She NEEDED to walk