Yesterday's hearing into Comcast's traffic-shaping practices at Harvard Law School attracted a huge crowd, one so large that people who arrived over an hour before it started were turned away. It was a packed house for a good show, one that featured Comcast and net neutrality proponents making their case in front of the five commissioners of the FCC.

A day after, allegations have surfaced that Comcast paid people to show up and sit in the meeting room in order to keep people from expressing their feelings about Comcast's actions to the FCC. Save The Internet is accusing Comcast of busing in a crowd of supports to pack the room.

"These seat-warmers were paid to fill the room, a move that kept others from taking part," according to a posting on the Save The Internet blog. "They arrived en masse some 90 minutes before the hearing began and occupied almost every available seat, upon which many promptly fell asleep."

Over 100 people were turned away from the meeting by campus police once the room reached capacity. "First, Comcast was caught blocking the Internet. Now it has been caught blocking the public from the debate," said Save The Internet campaign director Timothy Karr in a statement. "The only people cheering Comcast are those paid to do so."



Save The Internet snapped this picture

of attentive audience members

Comcast denies packing the room. "We did pay some individuals to stand in line and hold seats for Comcast employees," Comcast spokesperson Charlie Douglas told Ars. "It's a common practice in Washington, DC."

Douglas said that it was no more than a couple of dozen people that were paid to stand in line, and that everyone interested in attending the event had ample opportunity. "To be fair, everybody knew when [the meeting] was and where it was," Douglas noted. "Everybody had plenty of time to generate interest in getting people to attend, including Free Press."

Why would Comcast want a room full of employees at the FCC hearing? "Obviously, this has big implications for a lot of Comcast employees," Douglas answered. "They have a lot invested in this and they have every right to be able to attend as well.

"Everybody had equal time and it's all up on the web. Everybody can read the transcripts and listen to the audio and comment on what was covered."

If you want to listen to some of the discussion, we've got an MP3 of some of the best exchanges of the day available.

Further reading

