John Oliver has a brief update on his net neutrality call-to-arms


Last week, John Oliver warned that Federal Communications Commission chairman Ajit Pai was taking aim at net neutrality, and encouraged his viewers to write the FCC to register their opinion on the proposal. It worked, apparently. "The FCC site did get a ton of comments — the number is up to around 1.6 million, and those comments have come from all quarters of the political spectrum," Oliver said in a Last Week Tonight update Sunday night.
Not everyone was celebrating the burst of wonky civic engagement. The FCC complained about hacktivism aimed at the public-comment section, and some conservative commentators, like Liz Harrington at the Washington Free Beacon, discounted all the comments because some of the commenters used obviously fake names. "She is right, some of the comments on the site were faked — but interestingly, many of those were on the other side of this issue," Oliver said, including 128,000 identical comments against net neutrality that appear to be from spam bots.
Harrington also noted that some of the comments were racist. Oliver discouraged anyone from leaving racist messages at the FCC site, with a joke about President Trump thrown in, and again encouraged anyone with non-racist views on net neutrality to comment — just not right now. The FCC is voting on May 18, and won't consider any comment in the week leading up to that, he explained. If you want to know when it's safe to comment again, Oliver said, his GoFCCYourself site will start redirecting people to the FCC comment page again when the time is right. You can watch Oliver's update below, but be warned there is some vulgar, decidedly NSFW discussion of space sex. Peter Weber
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.
-
5 low ratings cartoons about the Late Show cancellation
Cartoons Artists take on early warning signs, the Gen Z stare, and more
-
Connie Francis: Superstar of the early 1960s pop scene
In the Spotlight The 'Pretty Little Baby' and 'Stupid Cupid' singer has died aged 87
-
Crossword: July 26, 2025
The Week's daily crossword puzzle
-
FCC greenlights $8B Paramount-Skydance merger
Speed Read The Federal Communications Commission will allow Paramount to merge with the Hollywood studio Skydance
-
Tesla reports plummeting profits
Speed Read The company may soon face more problems with the expiration of federal electric vehicle tax credits
-
Dollar faces historic slump as stocks hit new high
Speed Read While stocks have recovered post-Trump tariffs, the dollar has weakened more than 10% this year
-
Economists fear US inflation data less reliable
speed read The Labor Department is collecting less data for its consumer price index due to staffing shortages
-
Crypto firm Coinbase hacked, faces SEC scrutiny
Speed Read The Securities and Exchange Commission has also been investigating whether Coinbase misstated its user numbers in past disclosures
-
Starbucks baristas strike over dress code
speed read The new uniform 'puts the burden on baristas' to buy new clothes, said a Starbucks Workers United union delegate
-
Warren Buffet announces surprise retirement
speed read At the annual meeting of Berkshire Hathaway, the billionaire investor named Vice Chairman Greg Abel his replacement
-
Trump calls Amazon's Bezos over tariff display
Speed Read The president was not happy with reports that Amazon would list the added cost from tariffs alongside product prices