Since June 2015, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has received more than 40,000 net neutrality complaints from consumers objecting to the behavior of their Internet service providers (ISPs). Two months ago, the National Hispanic Media Coalition (NHMC) filed a Freedom of Information Act (FoIA) request asking for the release of the text of the complaints. In addition, the NHMC asked the FCC to extend the deadline for submitting comments about plans to overturn net neutrality until 60 days after the agency complied with the FoIA request.
This week, the FCC denied both requests. It said the request for the text of all complaints was overly burdensome and that it would release only a portion of the complaints. It also refused to extend the deadline for the net neutrality comment period.
In response, the NHMC said, “It should give the public pause that the agency with exclusive control over regulating Internet service providers refuses to share such information with the public.”