News

A telecommunications lawyer who has served on the FCC since May 2012, Pai is a free-market advocate who has been sharply critical of new regulations adopted by Democrats in recent years.

The appointment of new FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has raised concerns among internet rights activists that laws ensuring Net Neutrality are now under threat.

Public interest groups, political organizers and free speech advocates expressed anger and alarm on Monday about President Trump’s decision to elevate Ajit Pai, a right-wing opponent of Net Neutrality, to lead the FCC.

Ajit Pai has a solid track record of favoring deregulation of phone, cable and broadband companies. It’s a sure bet he’ll adopt a more hands-off approach to overseeing the telecom industry than his Democratic predecessor, Tom Wheeler, who believed government regulators have an important role to play in consumer protection.

Trump’s decision to elevate Pai, a fierce Net Neutrality foe, is consistent with the administration’s choice of a transition team that included conservative Washington insiders with close ties to the phone and cable lobby.

Pai has made no effort to conceal his anti-regulation, pro-business positions during his nearly five years as a commissioner.

Pai consistently opposed consumer-protection regulations, including the Net Neutrality rules, during the three-year chairmanship of Democrat Tom Wheeler.

WASHINGTON — According to a report in Politico, President Donald Trump plans to select current FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai as the agency’s next chairman.

WASHINGTON — The Hill reports that President-Elect Donald Trump’s transition team has recommended privatizing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), the entity that oversees distribution of federal money to hundreds of public radio and television stations around the country.

“We are at a fork in the road. One path leads forward. The other leads back to re-litigating solutions that are demonstrably working,” Tom Wheeler said in his final public speech as head of the FCC.