The Federal Communications Commission received 1.1 million public comments about keeping a "free and open" Internet and about 80 percent were in favor of net neutrality, according to reports.
The response to the open comment period was so strong that it crashed the site and the FCC had to extend the comment deadline until last month, according to NPR. An analysis of those comments also showed that there were "a lot of mentions of the F word," and a lot of pro net neutrality. Most of those comments that opposed net neutrality seemed to stem from a template or "form letter." The analysis showed that the comments weren't "unique" enough to merit on a cluster map.
Form letters aren't unusual in public comment periods, and they usually have common talking points. At least one letter in this batch used the American dream as a reason to not have net neutrality. From the NPR piece:
I've always seen this country as 'the land of opportunity'—this is what made me move to this place and eventually become an official citizen. I would hate to see many people's opportunities and dreams to disappear simply because of there not being any net neutrality...
Despite those opposed to net neutrality, the majority of comments were decidedly for a more open Internet. There's no word yet on whether comments may have swayed the commission in any way, but we hope that it will.
