What’s Up, Docket, the Sequel

The Wire continues its effort to keep readers updated on navigating the intricacies of Federal Communications Commission online dockets containing public and industry comments on various open proceedings and issues of importance — and aren’t you glad we’re here?

The FCC has now posted a Color of Change petition and a list of its signatories to the “Protecting and Promoting an Open Internet” docket.

The FCC registers the Color of Change petition opposed to the rollback of Title II-based network neturality rules as as a single comment. The agency’s list of the top 10 most active proceedings (comments uploaded in the last 30 days) still has the Open Internet docket at the very bottom with 54 comments.

But had the petition’s pages of names, with comments like “Please keep access to the Internet open. Our democracy depends on it” and “Net neutrality is essential to Black people and many others,” been counted as separate petitions or comments, they would have totaled almost 700 and taken the docket to the top of the list.

If net-neutrality fans want to gin up a big number, they will need to keep a close watch on the docket and likely also submit individual petitions with signatures on each.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.