The FCC chairman's net neutrality proposal has sparked a firestorm. | John Shinkle/POLITICO FCC extends net neutrality deadline

The Federal Communications Commission could have used an Internet “fast lane” on Tuesday as a flood of net neutrality comments caused its website to sputter and forced the agency to extend its deadline for accepting public input on its controversial plan.

FCC officials hope the additional time will give people who’ve had problems filing the chance to have their voices heard. The comment deadline was set to close midnight Tuesday, but the commission extended it to midnight Friday. Chairman Tom Wheeler’s original net neutrality proposal has sparked a firestorm for allowing Internet-service providers such as AT&T and Verizon to charge companies for faster delivery of content.


“Not surprisingly, we have seen an overwhelming surge in traffic on our website that is making it difficult for many people to file comments,” said FCC press secretary Kim Hart. “Please be assured that the Commission is aware of these issues and is committed to making sure that everyone trying to submit comments will have their views entered into the record.”

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As of Tuesday afternoon, there were 780,000 comments, but net neutrality activists contend the number is actually much higher, if you count petitions filed that contain thousands of individual names. Janet Jackson’s Super Bowl “wardrobe malfunction” holds the record for FCC comments at 1.4 million.

“The FCC isn’t used to this kind of attention and pressure,” said Craig Aaron, CEO of advocacy group Free Press. “It’s a new thing for Wheeler. He opens up the paper and sees all this. … It’s breaking through.”

The commission is once again engaged in the net neutrality debate after a D.C. appeals court tossed out a pair of key rules in January. The court ruled the FCC has the authority to regulate the Internet but said its logic was flawed.

In May the FCC approved a notice of proposed rule making based on Wheeler’s preferred lighter regulatory touch — which has been hammered for permitting Internet “fast lanes.” It also floats a more robust approach that treats the Internet like a telecom utility. A majority of the comments filed thus far have pushed the FCC to go the utility route, known as Title II.

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A group of 13 senators urged Wheeler on Tuesday to adopt the Internet-as-utility strategy. Signing the letter were Democrats Ed Markey (Mass.), Al Franken (Minn.), Chuck Schumer (N.Y.), Ron Wyden (Ore.), Richard Blumenthal (Conn.), Jeff Merkley (Ore.), Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.), Ben Cardin (Md.), Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.), Cory Booker (N.J.), and Barbara Boxer (Calif.) along with Independent Bernie Sanders (Vt.).

“If the FCC allows big corporations to negotiate fast lane deals, the Internet will be sold to the highest bidder,” Sanders said at a news conference. Franken called Wheeler’s proposal almost “Orwellian.”

Two Democratic state attorneys general — Eric Schneiderman of New York and Lisa Madigan of Illinois — also waded into the debate Tuesday, saying in their own comment that the FCC should avoid fast lanes and treat the Internet like a utility.

The big telecommunications companies have a different take, with companies like AT&T, Verizon and Comcast arguing that applying telephone-style regulation to the Internet would chill investment and result in drawn-out litigation.

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“Title II reclassification not only is unnecessary to achieve the Commission’s policy objectives, but would affirmatively undermine those objectives by significantly deterring the ongoing investments necessary to deploy broadband further and support the Internet’s continuing evolution,” the National Cable and Telecommunications Association said in a comment filed with the commission Tuesday.

With the FCC’s portal down, some net neutrality advocates used the opportunity to turn delivery of comments into an event. Groups like Free Press, the American Civil Liberties Union, and Common Cause planned to submit their comments by hand to the FCC’s headquarters in Washington.

An alliance of musicians and songwriters also got into the act. Artists such Charles Bissell of The Wrens and REM backed the Title II approach. Smarting from radio consolidation, the music industry fears allowing fast lanes could become the new payola of the 21st century.

“We music people know payola when we see it, and what we see in Chairman Wheeler’s proposal doesn’t give us any confidence that we won’t end up with an Internet where pay-by-play rules the day,” the consortium of musicians wrote. “We’ve heard this song before, and we’re frankly pretty tired of it.”

The deluge of comments turns up the temperature on the net neutrality debate, but it’s unclear how they will ultimately shape the commission’s decision making.

“Having hundreds of thousands of people writing into the FCC will clearly have an effect on the agency’s thought process,” said Paul Gallant, managing director of Guggenheim Securities. “But in the end they have to go with hard economic and legal evidence because this decision is going to court, and that’s all the judges care about.”

Aaron said Free Press and other public interest groups intend to keep up the pressure on Wheeler over the next few months, in what he’s calling “the summer of net neutrality.”

“We want to see Wheeler get out of D.C., outside the Beltway bubble,” he said. Free Press is planning a series of local events and district meetings with lawmakers.

Wheeler has said he’d like the commission to make a decision on net neutrality by the end of the year.