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John Oliver tackles robocalls by flooding FCC with spam calls:
"The host of HBO's Last Week Tonight has come up with a new way to encourage FCC commissioners to take a harder stance on robocalls: by robocalling them. On his show Sunday evening, Oliver debuted a system ... that robocalls FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and fellow commissioners every 90 minutes.
Can we call it treason? I don't think so, this guy is foreign, from U.K. Time to deport?
John Oliver Fights Robocalls. by Robocalling Ajit Pai and the FCC:
Comedian John Oliver is taking aim at the Federal Communications Commission again, this time demanding action on robocalls while unleashing his own wave of robocalls against FCC commissioners.
In a 17-minute segment yesterday on HBO's Last Week Tonight, Oliver described the scourge of robocalls and blamed Pai for not doing more to stop them. Oliver ended the segment by announcing that he and his staff are sending robocalls every 90 minutes to all five FCC commissioners.
"Hi FCC, this is John from customer service," Oliver's recorded voice says on the call. "Congratulations, you've just won a chance to lower robocalls in America today... robocalls are incredibly annoying, and the person who can stop them is you! Talk to you again in 90 minutes—here's some bagpipe music."
[...] When it came to robocalling the FCC, Oliver didn't need viewers' help. "This time, unlike our past encounters [with the FCC], I don't need to ask hordes of real people to bombard [the FCC] with messages, because with the miracle of robocalling, I can now do it all by myself," Oliver said.
"It turns out robocalling is so easy, it only took our tech guy literally 15 minutes to work out how to do it," Oliver also said. He noted that "phone calls are now so cheap and the technology so widely available that just about everyone has the ability to place a massive number of calls."
It would be a shame to waste all that time between phone calls doing nothing. Maybe John Oliver could be persuaded to add a 100 more people and maybe another 435 people while he's at it?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 16 2019, @11:59PM (5 children)
"Can we call it treason? I don't think so, this guy is foreign, from U.K. Time to deport?"
WTF is this comment about? When Oliver did this, it was within the laws created by Ajit Pai and the FCC. He has a team of lawyers that go over things like this to make sure it's 100% legal, and legally there's not a thing the FCC can say about this - except to legally change what counts as a robocall and to actually make policy that would forbid it. (Forbid it in general as well, not just a "you may not call us specificially" amendment to their otherwise horrible law that has been the direct result in a massive jump in robocalling.
And that's why the stunt was done. To explicitly point out to the FCC why their law is bad, why it doesn't work, and why they should really get their asses out of their collective anus and make a proper ruling that benefits citizens. You know, their JOB.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Whoever on Sunday March 17 2019, @12:11AM (1 child)
John Oliver is on very strong ground, because his robocalls are "petitioning the government" -- protected by the 1st amendment.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Pslytely Psycho on Sunday March 17 2019, @11:45AM
Your comment got me thinking, (I can tell from the amount of acrid smoke in the room...) Trump wasn't allowed to block Twitterheads he didn't like or agree with, does that mean Pai can't block or otherwise limit, or eliminate his exposure to these Robocalls, through either normal or exotic means?
This is a delicious idea, so how do we redirect the Robocalls we receive now to ol' Ajit and cohorts...I'm sure he would benifit greatly from "Don't hang up! Your Google account has been compromised!", "This is Windows calling." "This is the IRS, you are in violation."
and my personal favorite, "We have been trying to reach you, your bank account has been locked!"
My wife got one yesterday, It went something like this, "This is Mali, can you hear me?" No. "Oh, can you hear me now?" I told you no. "OK, let me try this, can you hear me now?" NO and quit fucking yelling! "Oh, I'm quite sorry, can you hear me no......." wife hangs up laughing her ass off.
Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.
(Score: 2) by captain normal on Sunday March 17 2019, @01:49AM
Look at the idiot that submitted the 1st sub.
https://soylentnews.org/submit.pl?op=viewsub&subid=32297 [soylentnews.org]
Any treason around here starts at the top and tinkles down to minions like Pai.
Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts"- --Daniel Patrick Moynihan--
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Sunday March 17 2019, @02:33AM
To explicitly point out to the FCC why their law is bad, why it doesn't work, and why they should really get their asses out of their collective anus and make a proper ruling that benefits citizens. You know, their JOB.
Like it or not, they answer to the president and congress, or they lose their JOB.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 3, Informative) by Mykl on Monday March 18 2019, @01:24AM
Our poster is a real method actor. This:
Is pretty much exactly what I'd expect Trump to write if he submitted it himself. Well, I found it funny anyway.