‘Not American’ to Threaten Pai’s Kids Over Net Neutrality Debate, Says Shapiro

What bothers CTA President Gary Shapiro about the net neutrality debate is that "both sides have exaggerated so badly” what they see as the likely impact of the FCC’s December vote to roll back 2015 rules (see 1712140039), Shapiro said in a CES-recorded interview on C-SPAN’s The Communicators to have been televised over the weekend. “We are in a position now where there's people who have such malicious intent toward the present chairman of the FCC,” said Shapiro of Ajit Pai. “His kids are being bothered, they’re getting death threats. This is not American to go after a public official, who frankly is a brilliant guy, doing what he thinks is right, with a lot of substance and nuance behind him.” Many “good people" on "both sides” of the debate can disagree, but “the fringes and the extremes on this issue are a reflection of a very bad direction that I believe that the country should not be going in,” said Shapiro. Pai withdrew from a planned visit to CES days before he was to sit down for a Las Vegas interview with Shapiro (see 1801030054).