FCC Won't Release E-mails With Verizon About Lame Collusion Joke You might recall that at a recent telecom industry gala, FCC boss Ajit Pai joked with his friends at Verizon about being a "Verizon puppet." The tone deaf joke was intended to make light of concerns that Pai was too cozy with Verizon, where he used to work as a lawyer. Pai's joke went so far as to include a video featuring former Verizon executives quipping how Pai was the equivalent of a "Manchurian candidate" planted by the telecom industry.

Given Pai's assault on net neutrality may just be the least popular tech policy decision in the industry's history, the joke largely just made Pai appear even more out of touch with American consumers than most already surmised. Fast forward to this week. Gizmodo says the news outlet filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the FCC asking for any communications between the FCC and Verizon ahead of the creation of the video. The FCC's response? To claim that the agency can't provide the records requested because they might harm the agency and its ability to craft policy. The FCC is claiming that it has the right to avoid releasing any communications with Verizon under Exemption 5 (Deliberative Process Privilege) of the FOIA. Gizmodo says roughly a dozen pages of e-mails between the FCC and Verizon were identified, but not released. "Exemption 5 encompasses a deliberative process privilege intended to “prevent injury to the quality of agency decisions," states the FCC, adding that releasing its communications with Pai's former employer "would expose an agency’s decision making process in such a way as to discourage candid discussion within the agency and thereby undermine the agency’s ability to perform its functions." FOIA experts tell Gizmodo the FCC's distorting the definition of Exemption 5 of the act simply to avoid embarrassment. The FCC likely also doesn't want to provide any ammunition for the numerous lawsuits headed the agency's direction for its net neutrality repeal. "Yes, the video was intended as a joke," states Gizmodo. "But ultimately, Pai’s decision to produce it and include a senior executive at Verizon--a company that he was poised to empower and enrich by billions of dollars by dissolving his own agency’s regulatory powers--sent a clear message about where his loyalties lie." The agency has similarly denied FOIA requests regarding meetings between ISPs and the FCC ahead of the net neutrality repeal, as well as FOIA requests surrounding the agency's failure to police fraudulent comments during the open comment period, and the The agency has similarly denied FOIA requests regarding meetings between ISPs and the FCC ahead of the net neutrality repeal, as well as FOIA requests surrounding the agency's failure to police fraudulent comments during the open comment period, and the bizarre DDoS attack the agency claimed shut down its website (that was, in reality, John Oliver viewers pissed about the net neutrality repeal ). Pai has repeatedly professed his dedication to "transparency," but only within the limited confines of his very personal definition of that term.







News Jump California Defends Its Net Neutrality Law; AT&T's Traffic Up 20% Despite Data Traffic Actually Being Down; + more news Are The Comcast-Charter X1 Talks Dead In The Water?; AT&T May Offer Phone Plans With Ads For Discounts; + more news Europe's Top Court: Net Neutrality Rules Bar Zero Rating; ViacomCBS To Rebrand CBS All Access As Paramount+; + more news Verizon To Buy Reseller TracFone For $7B; 5G Not The Competitive Threat To Cable Many Thought It Would Be; + more news MS.Wants Records From AT&T On $300M Project; Google Fiber Outages In Austin, Houston, Other Texan Cities; + more news States With The Biggest Decreases In Speed; AT&T Hopes You'll Forget Its Fight Against Accurate Maps; + more news AT&T's CEO Has A Familiar $olution To US Broadband Woes; EarthLink Files Suit Against Charter; + more news 5G Doesn't Live Up To Hype, AT&T's 5G Slower Than Its 4G; Cord-Cutting Now In 37% of Broadband Households; + more news FCC Cited False Broadband Data Despite Warnings; ZTE, Huawei Replacement Cost Is $1.87B, But Only $1B Allocated; + more Cogeco Rejects Altice USA's Atlantic Broadband Bid; AT&T Is Astroturfing The FCC In Support Of Trump Attack; + more news ---------------------- this week last week most discussed

Most recommended from 22 comments



Simba7

I Void Warranties

join:2003-03-24

Fromberg, MT 14 recommendations Simba7 Member Embarassment? Yep. I wonder how much farther this administration can embarrass themselves. They're already doing a wonderful job.

ieolus

Support The Clecs

join:2001-06-19

Danbury, CT Netgear R6400

8 recommendations ieolus Member Verizon puppet, like its even a question quote: It might also undermine the agency's looming legal battles over its extremely unpopular decision, lobbied for, not coincidentally, by Verizon.

Where these communications would be easily obtained during discovery... so, oops. You dun fracked up Pai. Where these communications would be easily obtained during discovery... so, oops. You dun fracked up Pai. mmay149q

Premium Member

join:2009-03-05

Dallas, TX 5 recommendations mmay149q Premium Member FOIA is useless Seriously, why do we even have the FOIA requests if it's useless? It's a joke Rekrul

join:2007-04-21

Milford, CT 4 recommendations Rekrul Member The FOIA Process... The Freedom of Information Act process;



1. File FOIA request.



2. Wait while the agency in question stalls and misses deadlines.



3. Be told that; A. It didn't find anything, B. It can't release the information, or C. You need to pay $1,000+ a page to cover the costs of releasing the information.



4. Sue the agency to get the information.



5. Win the lawsuit and receive a bunch of almost completely blacked out pages.



6. Rinse and repeat... rdmiller

join:2005-09-23

Richmond, VA 4 recommendations rdmiller Member Pardon Pai? Could Plump Trump just pardon Pai, and all of his appointees, to keep them from having to deal with all these pesky legal issues.