How Silicon Valley Became the FCC Chair’s Scapegoat - Bloomberg

Final paragraph: "But stoking the fire is an end in itself. Pai has the votes to upend the way the federal government treats competition on the internet. His chosen plan has made many people very angry. So he’s taken the default strategy of anyone involved in American politics circa 2017 – whip up some anger of his own."

"For some reason, restoring the lost power of huge telecom companies hasn’t lit a fire in grassroots circles on the right, a point that Pai’s political allies have been acknowledging privately for months. So the FCC chair came back from Thanksgiving looking to create a spark. In a speech on Tuesday, Pai angrily denounced celebrities and tech companies who have been criticizing his plans to undo the 2015 rules. Hollywood is always a good scapegoat, of course, and Republicans looking to stir up anger in 2017 do well to frame their issues as a response to the unchecked power of Silicon Valley.

According to Pai, the big tech platforms are the true threat to freedom of speech and open competition on the internet, and giving them any additional leverage is a mistake. “They might cloak their advocacy in the public interest, but the real interest of these internet giants is in using the regulatory process to cement their dominance in the internet economy,” he said on Tuesday. The next day he followed up by criticizing Twitter for blocking messages and cancelling conservative accounts. “When it comes to an open internet, Twitter is part of the problem,” he said."

How Silicon Valley Became the FCC Chair’s Scapegoat - Bloomberg