Ajit Pai won’t be getting a holiday e-card from Jimmy Kimmel, it sounds like.
The late night host roasted the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission last night, after the FCC voted 3-2 to repeal Obama-era net neutrality rules on Thursday. Kimmel couldn’t even muster Pai’s name as he was blasting the decision, essentially calling the former Verizon attorney a shill for President Trump.
“Thank you President Trump and this jackhole [Pai] you appointed to run the FCC, big corporations are about to take control of the internet,” said Kimmel.
Kimmel didn’t mince words when sharing his thoughts on the vote, either.
“The FCC did something absolutely despicable today: they voted to put an end to net neutrality. Now this is the rule that says everyone gets equal access to the internet,” said Kimmel.
He continued: “As long as they us they’re doing it now, internet service providers will be allowed to slow down or block web traffic to any website or streaming service that like, which benefits the big telecom companies and does the opposite for all of us.”
In 2015, the FCC voted to classify internet providers as “common carriers” — which barred them from “throttling,” or slowing down, access to particular sites. The classification also prohibited internet giants like Verizon and AT&T from creating paid fast lanes, or charging a premium to streaming sites like Netflix for their heavy network usage. Those safeguards, which Pai had called a “heavy handed” case of over-regulation, were pulled back with Thursday’s vote.
Kimmel ended his rant reminding viewers today, Dec. 15, was the last day to sign up for health care. “Once net neutrality is gone,” said Kimmel, “we might not even have WebMD anymore.”