CES Experiences Serious Pai Shortage
• FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has canceled his scheduled appearance at this week’s massive Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas after receiving several death threats. That’s the word from Recode, citing two unnamed “agency sources.”
This marks the second incident in recent weeks where Pai was the subject of threats — last month a bomb scare briefly delayed the Chairman’s controversial deciding vote to scrap the U.S. government’s net neutrality rules. The exact nature of this latest threat, made in advance of Pai’s scheduled fireside chat at the 2018 International CES, wasn’t specified, and a spokesman for Pai would only say, “We do not comment on security measures or concerns.” Gary Shapiro, President & CEO of the Consumer Technology Association, which puts on the annual Las Vegas-based trade show, told Digital Trends he didn’t know why Pai had canceled — but raised the fact that he had recently been “subject to vicious and direct attacks and threats.”
As Recode reports, “For months, Pai has been hounded by his critics, who view his vote to repeal net neutrality rules as tantamount to destroying the Internet. The FCC chairman has lamented that he and his family have been mocked, attacked and threatened, in public as well as on Twitter, where Pai himself is active.” On a brighter note, Recode says FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, a Democrat, and her Republican counterparts Michael O’Rielly and Brendan Carr still plan to attend CES, along with Maureen Ohlhausen, the acting leader of the Federal Trade Commission.
