FCC chair Ajit Pai has told Fox & Friends that net-neutrality protesters have "crossed a line" with hateful signs that target his children.

Fox News Channel reported Monday (Nov. 27) that demonstrators had been gathering outside Pai's home after last week's release of the order to reclassify ISPs as information services not subject to mandatory access regulations and to eliminate most of the bright-line network-neutrality rules.

Signs posted on the street outside the FCC chair's home included some naming his children and asking how his kids could look him in the eye as he was "murdering Democracy in cold blood," according to a tweet by one of Pai's neighbors that was cited in the Fox & Friends story.

I have a friend that lives near @AjitPaiFCC. Net neutrality "activists" posted these signs, featuring his children's names, outside his house. Pizzas also reportedly sent to his house every half-hour last night. pic.twitter.com/jWI4gV6Hvc

— Brendan Bordelon (@BrendanBordelon) November 25, 2017

“It certainly crosses a line with me,” Pai said on the show. “Families … should remain out of it, and [protesters should] stop harassing us at our homes. ... It was a little nerve-racking, especially for my wife, who’s not involved in this space.”

Former FCC chair Tom Wheeler also had protesters outside his home before he switched to a Title II approach to net-neutrality rules -- the approach Pai is now moving to roll back -- but the demonstrators were not threatening, and Wheeler even spoke with them and posed for a photo at one point.

Protesters had taken to Pai's street back in May, as well, after the FCC voted to propose the Title II rollback, but the tone of the newest protest had an uglier edge.

Pai chief of staff Matthew Berry also condemned -- by way of retweets -- some of the hateful and even racist messages aimed at Pai and his family by opponents of his proposal, including one that said he should get cancer and his family should be executed so they could not pass his genes on.

Former FCC chair Michael Copps, now a special advisor to Common Cause, is one of the strongest critics of Pai's proposal, but he told B&C that, as he tweeted over the Thanksgiving Day weekend, there is not a place for such hateful speech in the net-neutrality discussion, and anyone who directs it toward the current chair is no ally of his.

Copps added that when he was on the commission, he was concerned about hate speech and would like to see more done to rein it in, adding that given how much uncivil dialog is going on these days, the problem should be a little more obvious.

Fred Campbell, president of Tech Knowledge, which backs Pai's Title II rollback, stood up for the chair and against the protests.

“The repeated racist attacks against FCC chairman Ajit Pai and his family in their own home during the holiday weekend are horrific," he said. "The perpetrators of this villainy should be ashamed. These attacks aren’t net-neutrality advocacy. They are terrorism.”

Free Press president Craig Aaron distanced his group, which is strongly opposed to the Title II rollback, from the attacks on Pai and condemned the tenor and tactics.

Should go without saying, but we'll say it again and again. #NetNeutralitypic.twitter.com/LiiYCgDC3e

— Free Press Action (@freepressaction) November 27, 2017

"We don't condone this type of harassment. We believe in rigorous public debate," said Evan Greer, campaign director at Fight for the Future, which called for protests of the pending vote to roll back Title II. "People who care about this issue should be channeling their anger productively and calling on their lawmakers to take action to stop the FCC vote."

Popular Resistance, which protested then-Federal Communications Commission chair Tom Wheeler’s plan not to reclassify ISPs under Title II, are back at it with a new chair but the same complaint.

Some protestors stopped by Wheeler’s house last time around. Pai should expect some visitors, as well, in advance of the May 18 vote to launch his rollback of the Title II reclassification Wheeler eventually warmed to, and voted to impose.

Related: Pai Reads Mean Tweets

Popular Resistance has already launched its “Ajit-ation” campaign, according to the group, handing out flyers and door hangers in Pai’s Arlington, Va., neighborhood with his photo, captioned: “Have You Seen This Man.”

The group said it had even hung one on Pai’s door — it has also posted a photo online of what it said is the chairman’s house, with a warning to expect more visitors. It had planned a number of street protests there for this week.

Pai’s office had no comment at press time, but Wheeler talked with protestors at his house for a while before heading off to work, and when there was a brief musical protest at Pai’s first public meeting, he took it in good spirits and even sang along.

Another former FCC chair is also in the net-neutrality protest mix, but he will be the protestor rather than protestee. Michael Copps, a big fan of Title II, plans to address a rally outside FCC headquarters Thursday (May 18) in advance of the vote.

Input continued to pour in following President Donald Trump's signing Monday (April 4) of a resolution nullifying the FCC's broadband privacy rules after Hill Republicans approved it on close, politically divided, votes in both Houses of Congress.

Privacy groups promised to fight on while advertisers said the fight was over "innocuous" info that didn't warrant "barrage" of opt-in notices.

"By vetoing the repeal of the broadband privacy rules President Trump could have sent a powerful message that he heard Americans' demands to have a real say over how their personal information is used and shared for commercial proses, and was willing to stand up for them," said the Consumer Federation of America.

But given that the President added his imprimatur, what now? "This fight is not over," vowed CFA. "The Consumer Federation of America and the other organizations with which we work will continue to push for real privacy protections for Americans."

The National Hispanic Media Coalition was similarly displeased and similarly ready to continue the fight.

"With the stroke of his pen, President Trump quietly sealed the fate of FCC regulations aimed to protect the private information and web browsing histories of Americans across the country," said Carmen Scurato, director of policy and legal affairs. "Latinos value their private information and will not soon forget a President who failed them, especially in light of all the public concerns he has for his own privacy. The act was a clear gift to Internet Service Providers at the expense of the American people. But the American people were not quiet during this process and left one resounding message: we will continue to stand together to preserve and protect the open internet."

Michael Copps, former FCC chairman and now a special adviser to Common Cause, saw it as a handover of consumer rights to big business by the President.

"Privacy goes the way of populism as Trump rolls over again for big business," he said. "Despite a campaign filled with rhetoric about the plight of forgotten Americans, Trump has once again come down on the side of corporate profiteering at the expense of Americans who don't sit on corporate boards and can't afford a $200,000 membership at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach. Trump has flip-flipped on his own campaign promises and handed over Americans' right to privacy to those with the deepest pockets."

Looking at it from an entirely different angle was the Association of National Advertisers, which had pushed the FCC to reconsider the rules and Congress to repeal them.

“This rule would have required vast amounts of innocuous information to be treated suddenly as highly sensitive and needing opt-in consent from consumers," ANA said in a statement. "This is an important major step to help assure a level playing field for privacy regulation for all businesses, and to see to it that consumers will not be bombarded with incessant opt-in notices. ANA also is pleased that the leadership of the FCC and FTC have committed to working cooperatively to return primary regulatory authority over privacy issues to the Federal Trade Commission, which is where we think it should rightfully belong due to the FTC’s long history of oversight and expertise in the privacy arena.”

Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.), a longtime advocate for privacy online, particularly of children, and a frequent critic of media companies, said the rule rollback "will give giant internet service providers like Comcast, Verizon, and AT&T an open invitation to more easily collect, share, and sell your personal information without your consent."

“All Americans have a fundamental right to privacy, and I believe that right extends to the internet,” said Franken, ranking member of the Senate Privacy Subcommittee. “Your digital footprint—the sites you browse, the apps you use, and the sensitive data you provide to websites—deserves to be protected. President Trump has made a grave mistake by signing this disastrous legislation, which will deepen the pockets of big internet conglomerates like Comcast, Verizon, and AT&T by allowing them to more easily broker your private information. This law is as anti-consumer as it gets—it gives broadband providers free rein to collect, share, and auction off your data to the highest bidder without your consent. Your privacy is under threat, and I plan to fight back. We cannot allow corporate profits to outweigh consumer privacy rights.”

Even as multiple reports, including one in Multichannel News, have FCC chairman Tom Wheeler likely to propose approving the Charter Communications-Time Warner Cable deal with various conditions, including ones on access to over-the-top content and broadband buildouts, Common Cause was pushing back, calling on the FCC to change course, "step back" and reject the deal.

Demand Progress was also demanding that progress not be made toward approval.

"Sure, Charter may paint a rosy picture and may promise a number of public-interest concessions, but I've been through enough cable mergers to know that those promises are rarely kept," said former FCC chairman Mike Copps, now a special advisor to Common Cause. Copps was a strong opponent of media consolidation in his days on the commission.

"The FCC should reject this merger with dispatch, and recommit to chairman Wheeler's stated mantra of 'competition, competition, competition,’" Copps said.

Wheeler is expected to circulate the item before the informal 180-day shot clock on merger reviews reaches that figure next week. It is, as of March 17, on day 172.

Joining the effort to stem the approval tide was consolidation critic Demand Progress, which suggested conditions did not sweeten the deal.

“If this merger goes through, Big Cable will see even bigger profits, while American consumers will be stuck with higher prices and fewer options," said Demand Progress executive director David Segal. "And weak, unworkable and unenforceable conditions on the merger won't change that."

Michael Copps, the former Federal Communications Commission commissioner, had a poignant moment at the end of last week's FCC meeting at which Title II regulation for Internet services was adopted.

As the crowd milled around, Copps worked his way to the front of the room and had a long chat with his former legal advisor, who also just happened to be commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, who had voted "for" the plan. There was no audio of the informal conversation, although the C-SPAN camera captured plenty of smiles, head-nodding and a sense of accomplishment as the two celebrated a shared achievement.

For Copps, who from 2001 to 2011 served as an FCC commissioner (and briefly as interim chairman in 2009), it was a "wonderful feeling ... going back into the meeting room where I cast the only dissenting vote" when in 2002 then-FCC chairman Michael Powell pushed through the light-touch Internet regulatory policy, Copps told Multichannel News this week.

"I was thinking, 'Wow, this is really a big deal,'" Copps said. "To be there and be part of the enthusiasm and understanding that citizen power had a lot to do [with it] was a moving experience."

Copps, a passionate advocate for Title II regulation, said he was "thrilled to be there" when "we put ourselves more firmly on the road to Open Internet." He characterized the FCC's 3-2 decision as "a critical step" because it established "the best legal foundation" for the court and legislative challenges ahead.

Implementation and enforcement are now the FCC's major hurdles, he said.

"I'll be watching to make sure that we have a good implementation team," Copps said. "We've seen in the past all kinds of conditions put on them. I don't think that will happen here."

Copps, who now serves as special advisor to Common Cause's Media and Democracy Reform Initiative and is also associated with the Benton Foundation, focused on the importance of the four million public comments that flowed into the FCC as well as President Obama's endorsement of Title II regulation.

"The fact that people would be attracted to [supporting] something as wishy-washy sounding as 'net neutrality'" was "incredible," Copps said.  He called the presidential support "very influential" and not unprecedented, citing  President George W. Bush's push on network-ownership issues.

Recognizing the inevitable Capitol Hill reviews of the FCC's decision, Copps said he "feels sorry for the commissioners having to spend so much time up there." He contended that the more Republican legislators "push this, they'll find it is not playing too well back home." He referred to polls -- but did not indicate a source -- that suggest "80% of the public doesn't want fast lanes."

'This is not a party issue," Copps said, referring again to the Republicans who opposed Title II regulation. "They may be in for a surprise."

He also complimented the FCC's "community broadband" decision as "a wonderful thing." Just prior to the net-neutrality vote, the Commission (also in a 3-2 partisan vote) ruled that Tennessee and North Carolina cannot stop local municipalities from expanding their own broadband networks.

"Put those all together, and we can make some forward progress," Copps said. Both votes resultedin "good rules that will encourage innovation."

"There's going to be a lot of money made," he added.

Maintaining his long-held populist views, Copps posted a blog this week simply entitled "Victory," in which he predicted that in the upcoming legal challenges, Internet Service Providers (naming names such as Verizon, Comcast and AT&T) will trot out "old skeletons dressed in new clothes." He said he expects "more astroturf strategy" and he doubts the ISPs "will be able to come up with anything new."

In particular, he said he hopes that civil rights and labor organizations won't be seduced again to support the ISPs' views after "they have [been] favored with corporate contributions ... to spread the ISPs’ message."

"Now is the time for them to rally 'round the Open Internet flag and fight for what has been achieved, rather than become the unwitting tool of those who seek to close the doors of Internet opportunity," Copps wrote in his blog. He deemed the FCC's decision "a civil rights issue -- perhaps the preeminent one of the 21st century."

Copps said he views the FCC's ruling as a "significant reform" that came "from pressure from the grassroots. That's really important."

"That was a big deal," he added. "It bodes well for the future of the Open Internet."