John Oliver Calls on 4chan and Reddit to Help Keep Net Neutrality
It needs the help of trolls to survive.
John Oliver is worried. The Last Week Tonight host shot to fame three years ago when an episode of his show calling on viewers to stand up for net neutrality went viral. The Federal Communications Commission, which was considering changes to the rules governing internet access, struggled to keep up with the slew of comments. But that hard-fought freedom now looks under threat again again from the new head of the FCC, Ajit Pai.
“America needs you to rise, or more accurately, remain seated in front of your computer screen, to this occasion!” Oliver said on an episode of his show aired Sunday. “Gamers, YouTube celebrities, Instagram models, Tom from MySpace if you’re still alive,” all need to leave a comment saying they support net neutrality.
So Oliver has once called on internet communities to act.
On Sunday, he showed them how by announcing the redirect URL GoFCCYourself.com, which points users to the “Restoring Internet Freedom” filing — otherwise buried on the website — that had more than 30,000 signatures on Friday and has more than 77,000 on Monday.
He called on “gamers, YouTube celebrities, Instagram models, Tom from MySpace if you’re still alive,” and then reached across the aisle to the the most powerful hive-mind online: trolls.
“We need all of you, and I cannot believe I’m saying this, Donald Trump’s internet fans on sites like 4chan and Reddit, the most powerful online trolls of all. This subject is one of the few things that we actually really agree on, so express yourselves and harness the rage that you normally reserve for me,” he said.
Watch the full segment below.
Last Week Tonight airs Sundays on HBO.
