Chairman Pai Jokes About Internet Freedom in Daily Caller Video

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai is facing an online backlash after joking about the implications of repealing net neutrality. Pai appeared in a video wielding a fidget spinner and performing the Harlem Shake just one day before a decisive vote is cast over whether to repeal net neutrality. The video appeared on conservative news site The Daily Caller on Wednesday, ahead of Thursday’s vote by the FCC that is expected to reverse the Obama-era “Open Internet Order” regulations. 

His use of the word "freedom" riled net neutrality supporters on social media, with some claiming that he was “openly mocking” those opposed to his stance on the issue. Net neutrality advocates have called the net neutrality measures the “First Amendment of the internet” and say abolishing the Open Internet Order could open the floodgates to widespread censorship. “As a way to convince people to get aboard his plan, it’s abysmal,” wrote William Hughes, a writer for entertainment website the A.V. Club. “But as a bit of textbook ‘smug a--hole gloating,’ it’s straight out of the playbook of his boss, Donald Trump.”