The FCC will not turn over emails related to the filming of a 2017 PSA starring Chairman Ajit Pai in support of ending net neutrality rules, according to a statement received by the nonprofit that requested the records.
The agency wrote in a statement to Muckrock that emails pertaining to a December PSA meant to hit back at critics of Pai’s plan to end Obama-era net neutrality regulations were exempted from Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) claims.
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The FCC wrote that releasing two pages of internal emails about the video “would foreseeably harm the staff’s ability to execute its functions by freely discussing relevant matters.”
Pai was the subject of controversy over the video, which was produced by the right-wing news site The Daily Caller, after it was revealed that one of the actors dancing to the “Harlem Shake” in the video was actually a well-known conspiracy theorist who promoted “Pizzagate.”
The Pizzagate conspiracy, which gained notoriety during the 2016 election, alleged that Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party were tied to a global ring of child sex traffickers. A man who believed the conspiracy opened fire in the Washington, D.C., pizzeria supposedly linked to the trafficking later that year.
Martina Markota, a video producer for The Daily Caller who was in the video, was seen in a YouTube clip talking about the conspiracy theory. However, she denied pushing the theory in a statement to the Washington Examiner.
“I do not believe in the Pizzagate conspiracy theory, I have never believed in the Pizzagate conspiracy theory, and I have never said in any online video that I am a believer in the conspiracy theory,” she said.
Net neutrality provisions, which forced internet service providers to treat all data the same, were overturned in December by an FCC vote.