Net neutrality campaigners took to the skies to declare victory over cable companies by flying a “grumpy cat” meme banner over the headquarters of Comcast, the nation’s biggest internet provider.

Open internet activists flew a plane carrying a 2,000sq ft banner reading: “Comcast: Don’t mess with the internet” with an image of a popular grumpy cat and the hashtag #SorryNotSorry.

The aerial victory parade in Philadelphia came the day after the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved a plan to govern broadband internet like a public utility, and prevent cable companies from offering preferential access to the internet to those that pay more.

“This is a victory of the internet, by the internet, and for the internet,” David Segal, executive director of Demand Progress, one of the biggest net neutrality campaign groups, said. “Comcast and cable allies spent big for the right to degrade the very service they provide to their customers, and they tried to ignore the millions of public comments in support of net neutrality.

“But they can’t ignore the FCC’s vote yesterday – or a plane flying over their corporate headquarters today. This banner is a message from the millions who stood up to one of the most powerful special interests in Washington: you can’t ignore the internet. We won at the FCC and we’re ready to fight the ISPs and defend net neutrality in the streets and in the air, in Congress and in the courts. And we will win.”

The campaigners were integral to generating large scale public support for the net neutrality rules. FCC chairman Tom Wheeler – a former telecom lobbyist turned surprise hero of net neutrality supporters – thanked the 4 million people who submitted comments on the new rules. “Your participation has made this the most open process in FCC history,” he said yesterday [Thursday]. “We listened and we learned.

“The internet is simply too important to be left without rules and without a referee on the field,” he added. “[The] order is more powerful and more expansive than any previously suggested.”

The grump cat victory came shortly after Republican FCC member Ajit Pai, who opposed net neutrality, invoked Star Wars’s evil galactic emperor Palpatine in a fresh attack on the regulations. Pai said: “Young fool … Only now, at the end, do you understand.”

The battle between the two sides was quickly dubbed a meme war.