Yuri Gripas/Reuters
The Federal Communications Commission said Monday that its website was bombarded with denial-of-service attacks after criticism of the regulator’s plans to reverse net-neutrality rules. The attacks came a day after comedian John Oliver urged viewers of his HBO show to submit electronic comments opposing the regulator’s plans, setting up a website for the sole purpose of filing such comments. Shortly after that appeal, the FCC said in a statement that it “was subject to multiple distributed denial-of-service attacks.” “These were deliberate attempts by external actors to bombard the FCC’s comment system with a high amount of traffic to our commercial cloud host,” the FCC said, adding that the attacks “made it difficult for legitimate commenters to access and file with the FCC.” FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said last month he would seek public comment on his plan to undo net-neutrality rules, a move that would leave internet service providers mostly free from FCC regulations. Under the current policy, introduced by the Obama administration, internet service providers are regulated by the FCC to prevent them from giving preferential treatment to certain websites for profit. Pai has described that policy as a “serious mistake” and said it is stifling the industry. Critics of Pai’s plan warn that it would allow internet service providers like Comcast and AT&T to put profits before consumers.