Stop hiding 47,000 net neutrality complaints, advocates tell FCC chair

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | Peter Dazeley)

The Federal Communications Commission is being pressured to release the text of 47,000 net neutrality complaints before going through with Chairman Ajit Pai's plan to eliminate net neutrality rules.

The FCC has refused to release the text of most neutrality complaints despite a Freedom of Information Act (FoIA) request that asked for all complaints filed since June 2015. The FCC has provided 1,000 complaints to the National Hispanic Media Coalition (NHMC), which filed the public records request but said last month that it's too "burdensome" to redact personally identifiable information from all 47,000.

Today, 16 groups wrote a letter urging the FCC to release all the complaints so they can be reviewed by the public before the commission finalizes a plan to dismantle the 2015 net neutrality rules. "The FCC has failed to make critical evidence available for public review and comment," they wrote to Pai and the other four commissioners.