Ajit Pai

Ajit Varadaraj Pai, commonly known as Ajit Pai, is an American lawyer and the former Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). He was first appointed to the FCC's board by President Barack Obama in 2012 and was re-appointed as the Chairman by President Donald Trump in 2017. In late 2017, Pai became notorious after leading the FCC's decision to repeal 2015 regulations enforcing net neutrality. Before working for the FCC, Pai had worked as legal counsel for Verizon Communications from 2001 to 2003. In November 2020, after Joe Biden beat Trump, it was announced that Ajit Pai would step down as FCC chairman, and he departed the FCC in January 2021.

Quotes
See, guys? Pai favors a free and open Internet!:

Despite the public being totally against abolishing net neutrality, Pai still claims he's representing the American people:

The open mind that wasn't
Despite claiming to have an open mind on the issue, evidence would indicate otherwise. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman gave evidence that 2 million Americans' identities had been stolen to submit fraudulent comments against net neutrality, despite the FCC refusing to cooperate with his investigation. Congressman and former prosecutor Ted Lieu suggested Pai could be complicit with criminal misconduct without investigation of the alleged fraud:

Unacceptable @FCC & @AjitPaiFCC are letting criminal misconduct taint their vote on #NetNeutrality. What are they hiding? If they don't delay their vote, Congress needs to hold hearings now (or after Nov 2018) on whether @AjitPaiFCC & #FCC were complicit with criminal misconduct.

The vote went ahead on December 14, 2017; as expected, Pai voted to end net neutrality in a 3-2 vote. Immediately following the vote, the attorneys general of multiple states stated that they would sue the FCC:

I will sue to stop the FCC's illegal rollback of #netneutrality. New Yorkers and all Americans deserve a free and open internet. pic.twitter.com/BNW7TDsp4z

Corruption
Pai had a private meeting with AT&T executives Bob Quinn and John Stankey on February 27, 2017, the topics of which were likely AT&T's opposition to net neutrality and AT&T's proposed $85 billion merger with Time Warner. The meeting may have been arranged by Trump's private lawyer, Michael Cohen, who had previously been paid $600,000 by AT&T to advise on the merger, a payment that had been approved by Quinn. Quinn was forced out of AT&T with a golden parachute, while AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson claimed that hiring Cohen was a "big mistake".

Buy now!
Pai (via Daily Caller) explains how you can still buy cheap plastic shit you don't need without net neutrality. If Comcast blocks RationalWiki, well, tough shit!

Cute video Ajit "Aren't I Precious?" Pai 🤮-but you are profoundly unworthy 2 wield a lightsaber-A Jedi acts selflessly for the common man-NOT lie 2 enrich giant corporations. Btw-did you pay John Williams his royalty? @AjitPaiFCCorpShill #AJediYouAreNOT

Pai's video includes the famous song "Harlem Shake". According to the record label Mad Decent, which released the song, Daily Caller was not given permission to use "Harlem Shake". Mad Decent has issued a takedown request for copyright violation.

The video also contains the apparently hip and trendy fidget spinner, further proof that Republicans just don't get the Internet.

This proves that Ajit Pai either doesn't understand net neutrality or thinks we are all idiots. In this video, Ajit Pai conflates net neutrality with buying stuff when it is about forcing internet companies to treat all information equally.