This article is more than 6 years old

This article is more than 6 years old

Move over, Janet Jackson: America is officially more concerned with the future of the internet than with your nipple.

After a day of protest against Federal Communications Commission (FCC) proposals for regulating the internet that was coordinated by some of the world’s largest tech companies, the agency announced on Wednesday it had received a record 1,477,301 public comments about the proposals since July.

The previous record of 1.4 million was set in 2004 when an alleged “wardrobe malfunction” during the halftime show at the Super Bowl led to Jackson’s breast (plus nipple shield) being flashed to an audience of 111 million.

The record was broken as tech companies including Twitter, Reddit, Google and others called on their users to contact the FCC and Congress and express their disapproval over new rules now being considered that they claim would impact “net neutrality”.

Net neutrality is the concept that all traffic on the internet is treated equally and that no internet service provider can offer a higher speed service that could unfairly advantage one content provider over another.

The number of submissions is likely to rise even higher before a Monday deadline for public comments on the FCC proposals, which are a result of chairman Tom Wheeler’s being forced to rewrite the rules on net neutrality after a federal court tossed the agency’s previous set.

One of the proposals has sparked controversy because it would allow internet service providers like Verizon, AT&T and Comcast to create a so-called “fast lane” for certain traffic – a move critics say would de facto create slow lanes.

Comments to the FCC spiked earlier this year when comedian John Oliver, on his HBO show, called on people to bombard the FCC in support of net neutrality. “The only two words in the English language more boring than net neutrality are ‘featuring Sting,’”­ said Oliver. “But here’s the thing. Net neutrality is actually hugely important.”

The FCC’s antiquated and under funded systems crashed under the volume of calls and submissions shortly after Oliver’s remarks.

The FCC fined CBS a record $500,000 over the Jackson incident, though that fine was eventually overturned on appeal. Several big media conglomerates imposed a blacklist on Jackson’s music and videos in the immediate wake of the scandal.