The FCC Comments Site Might Be Broken, But You Can Still E-Mail

As we mentioned this morning, Last Week Tonight host John Oliver made a hilariously profane, impassioned plea for Americans to just give a damn and do something about the FCC’s pending net neutrality (aka “cable company f*ckery”) rules. It seems his call didn’t fall on deaf ears, as the FCC’s commenting system appears to be completely overwhelmed and inaccessible to most people. But that doesn’t mean you can’t still e-mail the Commission.

As we’ve written before, there are several ways to get your opinion on net neutrality, Internet fast lanes, interconnectivity, paid-peering, etc. heard on the record by the FCC.

Since the Commission’s online commenting database appears to be overwhelmed — after all, it’s probably used to getting a handful of comments each day from tech-savvy consumers who understand the incredibly boring inside-baseball language used by regulators and those who are regulated — you’ll have to take advantage of the openinternet@fcc.gov e-mail address that was set up earlier this year in advance of the expected level of interest in FCC Chair Tom Wheeler’s neutrality proposal.

The FCC has previously confirmed to Consumerist that e-mailed comments are indeed added to the docket of comments, so your messages should still matter.

Tell Wheeler and his fellow commissioners that the Internet is not broken. Tell them that the ISPs who do virtually none of the work of carrying data to and from consumers should not have the ability to prioritize content from deep-pocketed companies — and as a result, degrade data from those who don’t or can’t pay.

by Chris Morran via Consumerist