Sen. Ted Cruz decided to respond to Mark Hamill’s tweet about FCC chairman Ajit Pai with an explanation of net neutrality involving Darth Vader, and it didn’t turn out very well for Cruz.

.@HammillHimself Luke, I know Hollywood can be confusing, but it was Vader who supported govt power over everything said & done on the Internet. That's why giant corps (Google, Facebook, Netflix) supported the FCC power grab of net neutrality. Reject the dark side: Free the net! https://t.co/nARkMvIEYk — Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) December 17, 2017

Hamill fired back with a tweet suggesting Cruz may be “distracted from watching porn at the office again,” to explain why the Senator misspelled the actor’s name in his response tweet. This was a reference to an incident earlier this year where Cruz insisted a staffer accidentally liked a hardcore porn video with Cruz’s official Twitter account — it was titled ‘Moms Bang Teens 20.’

Thanks for smarm-spaining it to me @tedcruz I know politics can be confusing, but you'd have more credibility if you spelled my name correctly. I mean IT'S RIGHT THERE IN FRONT OF YOU! Maybe you're just distracted from watching porn at the office again❤️-mh https://t.co/nHpJVG1Wpe — Mark Hamill (@HamillHimself) December 17, 2017

Cruz’s tweet came in response to a Hamill tweet mocking Ajit Pai’s extremely patronizing video, titled ‘7 Things You Can Still Do After Net Neutrality.’ Hamill threw shade on the chairman, saying “you are profoundly unworthy to wield a lightsaber — A Jedi acts selflessly for the common man — NOT lie to enrich giant corporations.”

Cute video Ajit "Aren't I Precious?" Pai 🤮-but you are profoundly unworthy 2 wield a lightsaber-A Jedi acts selflessly for the common man-NOT lie 2 enrich giant corporations. Btw-did you pay John Williams his royalty? @AjitPaiFCCorpShill #AJediYouAreNOT pic.twitter.com/SpIcOEySUY — Mark Hamill (@HamillHimself) December 16, 2017

While Cruz’s assertion that Darth Vader would support net neutrality is unfounded, it does illustrate the common argument against net neutrality: that repealing it corrects government overreach, thus freeing the internet. Specifically, opponents of net neutrality claim the current regulations allow the government to pick winners and losers, rather than ensuring a competitive market. According to Paige Agostin’s opinion article in The Hill,

Dating back to the Clinton administration, the federal government had taken a “light-touch” approach to Internet regulation, and the net flourished. In the span of a mere 20 years, hugely successful companies such as Google and Facebook developed and American consumers benefited from incredible innovations. Unencumbered, the private sector made more than $1 trillion in investments and gave us high-speed and wireless Internet access. But things changed in 2015. As Chairman Pai noted in his announcement, net neutrality rules “put the federal government at the center of the Internet.” Rather than ensuring an open and competitive market, the government’s heavy hand would pick winners and losers and subject Internet service providers to a bevy of regulations and fees. Title II’s ban on paid prioritization, which prevents service providers from charging different rates for different types of content delivery, makes about as much sense as declaring that all packages must be delivered on the same schedule, even if you’re willing to pay more to get it there faster. The ban stifles innovation. Perhaps worse, it’s not even applied equally, since specialized services are exempted from it. As the certainty and freedom of the light-touch approach disappeared, investments in network infrastructure declined for the first time (outside of a recession) ever. Not surprisingly, competition weakened and the consumer suffered. Title II regulations have come at the expense of consumer benefits.

Some opponents even contend that net neutrality is an Obama-era scheme, pushed for by major internet players like Google and Twitter, that allowed them to limit and censor conservative news on the internet. Pai claims the internet was the greatest free market success story in history until Obama decided to implement Title II, “an old regulatory framework,” which killed innovation and investment and “put the federal government at the center of the internet.” Supporters of the rollback believe it will increase investment in broadband infrastructure from companies like Verizon and AT&T, giving consumers faster and cheaper internet.

Meanwhile, supporters of net neutrality were highly critical of the repeal vote. New York AG Eric Schneiderman is suing the FCC, arguing that repealing net neutrality “would enable ISPs to charge consumers more” and “favor certain viewpoints over others.” Schneiderman also claimed as many as 2 million of the comments on the FCC’s website are fake, expanding on the 444,938 Russian comments discovered by Bloomberg. Schneidermann released a statement saying,

“The FCC just gave Big Telecom an early Christmas present, by giving internet service providers yet another way to put corporate profits over consumers. Today’s new rule would enable ISPs to charge consumers more to access sites like Facebook and Twitter and give them the leverage to degrade [the] high quality of video streaming until and unless somebody pays them more money. Even worse, today’s vote would enable ISPs to favor certain viewpoints over others.”

A number of Democrats and tech companies have come out against the repeal, including Netflix, who called the FCC vote “misguided.”

We’re disappointed in the decision to gut #NetNeutrality protections that ushered in an unprecedented era of innovation, creativity & civic engagement. This is the beginning of a longer legal battle. Netflix stands w/ innovators, large & small, to oppose this misguided FCC order. — Netflix (@netflix) December 14, 2017

On Thursday the FCC voted 3-2 to scrap its 2015 Open Internet Order, which required all internet service providers to treat all internet traffic as equal.

Related Reading

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FCC: net neutrality is ‘politically motivated government overreach’

‘A Jedi You Are NOT’: Mark Hamill slams light saber-wielding FCC chairman over net neutrality