FCC extending net neutrality commenting time after site buckles
A flood of comments about net neutrality crashed the Federal Communications Commission's commenting site on Tuesday, the original deadline for public comments on the controversial Internet proposal. But the tech problems are buying those who want to weigh in some extra time — the deadline for public commenting is now Friday at midnight.
Of the 780,000 comments submitted to the FCC, 100,000 came on Tuesday alone, which the FCC's outdated electronic comment filing system was not capable of handling.
"Just to be sure that everyone can have a chance to submit their comments, we are extending the deadline," FCC spokesman Mark Wigfield said.
On the table is a proposal that would allow Internet providers, like Comcast, to charge content companies, like Netflix, extra fees to deliver faster content to consumers.
This is one of the most heavily commented-on policy items the FCC has ever considered, but it's unlikely to surpass two other notable FCC-related events. Two million comments were registered on media deregulation. And the FCC received 1.4 million comments about Janet Jackson's infamous Superbowl wardrobe malfunction 10 years ago.
The commenting site is available here. Copyright 2019 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
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