Remember John Oliver’s enthusiastic appeal made on HBO’s Last Week Tonight a few months ago to Internet trolls to go to the FCC’s website and comment on net neutrality? Well, that particular show segment was so popular that it may have convinced thousands of Internet users to try to post a comment in support of net neutrality with the FCC, leading to a temporary crash of the website.
FROM EARLIER: John Oliver’s successful net neutrality appeal broke the FCC
Since then, The Verge sent a request to the FCC, under the Freedom of Information Act, asking to see email exchanges between employees related to Oliver’s show segment, and was granted access to them.
Apparently, FCC employees were amused by Oliver’s jokes on cable companies and net neutrality while admitting that these companies were not particularly pleased about the video, which went viral on YouTube.
The media assaulted the FCC with questions about Oliver after the show, and the Commission told them that it wasn’t able to determine whether Oliver’s actions have actually contributed to the site’s crash, but admitted they experienced a traffic spike following the HBO show.
“Any comment from the chairman on John Oliver’s suggestion that he protesteth too much and might ACTUALLY be a dingo?” a reporter asked the FCC, to which a spokesperson said “Hey John, no, no comment on that :).”
The full FCC email exchanges between FCC employees on the Oliver matter is available below, with his original video available at this link.
