This is an accepted version of this page Ajit Varadaraj Pai (/əˈdʒiːt ˈpaɪ/;[1] born January 10, 1973) is an American lawyer who served as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from 2017 to 2021.

He was nominated to be a commissioner in 2011 by President Barack Obama, who followed tradition in preserving balance on the commission by accepting the recommendation of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

[9] Pai is a proponent of repealing net neutrality in the United States and, on December 14, 2017, voted with the majority of the FCC to reverse the decision to regulate the internet under Title II of the Communications Act of 1934.

[4] Pai left Verizon in April 2003 and was hired as Deputy Chief Counsel to the United States Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Administrative Oversight and the Courts.

In this role, he had supervisory responsibility over several dozen lawyers in the Administrative Law Division and worked on a wide variety of regulatory and transactional matters involving the wireless, wireline, cable, Internet, media, and satellite industries.

[4] Pai returned to the private sector in April 2011, working in the Washington, D.C., office of law firm Jenner & Block where he was a partner in the Communications Practice.

In 2011, Pai was then nominated for a Republican Party position on the Federal Communications Commission by President Barack Obama at the recommendation of Minority leader Mitch McConnell.

[25] Pai also asserted that by reforming the way the commission works, the agency can facilitate the provision of new and better services at lower prices for American consumers.

[27] Pai wrote an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal in 2014 criticizing a proposed FCC study of the news-gathering practices of media organizations.

[28][29] In another 2014 letter, Pai criticized Netflix, writing that their Open Connect caching tools effectively secure fast lanes for its traffic.

[30] In October 2014, Pai wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post criticizing a government-funded research project named Truthy at Indiana University which was studying the spread of "false and misleading ideas, hate speech and subversive propaganda" online.

[34] In 2017, Pai removed from circulation a proposal introduced by Tom Wheeler which would have required cable providers to make their programming available on third-party devices.

[41][42] He said in December 2016 that he believed Title II net neutrality's "days [were] numbered",[43] and was described by the New York Times as a stickler for strict application of telecommunications law and limits on the FCC's authority.

In a speech two weeks before the FCC's scheduled December 2017 vote on net neutrality, Pai was critical of celebrities including Cher, Mark Ruffalo, and Alyssa Milano for boosting opposition to the planned repeal.

[50] On May 18, 2017, the Federal Communications Commission took the first formal step toward dismantling the net neutrality rules,[51] and on December 14, 2017, voted to reverse Title II regulations after a contentious public comment period.

[72] In 2016, Pai called for an investigation of potential fraud among beneficiaries of the agency's Lifeline subsidy for telecommunication services, contending that "apparent duplicates" who had signed up for the program improperly received $476 million annually.

[74] In November 2017, two Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives, John Conyers (Michigan) and David Cicilline (Rhode Island), asked David L. Hunt, the inspector general of the FCC, to investigate whether Pai's legislative actions regarding the relaxation of broadcast ownership rules were biased in favor of Sinclair Broadcast Group, a large owner of broadcast television stations that, since the formation of its now-defunct News Central format in 2003, produces conservative news and commentary segments that the group requires its stations to insert into certain local newscasts.

The FCC, under Pai, undertook a number of actions that the legislators believe would benefit Sinclair – which has lobbied for such changes for several years – including rolling back certain broadcast television station ownership limitations (including allowing exceptions to duopoly rules that forbid common ownership of two television stations in the same market if both are among the four highest-rated or if such a combination would dilute independent media voices, reinstating a 1985 discount quota on UHF stations repealed two years earlier by Wheeler and his Democratic-led majority, a requirement dating to the FCC's inception for broadcast outlets to maintain office operations within the community of their primary local coverage areas, and removing ownership attribution rules applying to joint sales and shared services agreements).

"[82][83][84] From late 2017, the FCC inspector general's office investigated Pai regarding the proposed Sinclair-Tribune merger; this was made publicly known in February 2018.

[86] In July 2018, the FCC under Pai ordered that the proposed Sinclair-Tribune merger be subject to administrative law judge hearings, due to allegations that Sinclair was planning to illegally retain control of stations it was divesting from.

FCC Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks argued against the agreement, as they wanted the investigations to be fully completed and made public.

[89][90] On April 16, 2020, Pai asked the other FCC commissioners to approve an application to "deploy a low-power terrestrial nationwide network in the L-Band that would primarily support 5G and Internet of Things services",[91][92] in spite of a report issued by the DoD raising concerns about the potential impact it could have on the operational capabilities of the US military, specifically with regard to GPS coverage.

[93] On October 15, 2020, Pai released an official statement pledging that he would clarify Section 230, a portion of the Communications Decency Act that provides immunity for website publishers of third-party content.

President Donald Trump had previously threatened to punish Facebook and Twitter for alleged anti-conservative bias after the companies blocked a series of New York Post stories about the Hunter Biden email controversy.

"[99][100] No group took responsibility for the provocative signs, although the advocacy organization Popular Resistance left flyers on Pai's neighbors' doors that included his picture, age, and weight as part of a campaign they called "Ajit-ation".