FOIA Advisor

FOIA News: FCC withholds "Harlem Shake" video

Allan BlutsteinComment

FCC blocks reveal of emails with conservative news site about 'Harlem Shake' net neutrality video

The denial is one of many from the FCC, which has come under fire for a lack of transparency.

By Ben Collins, NBC News, Apr. 5., 2018 

In December, the day before the Federal Communications Commission voted to repeal its net neutrality rules, the agency’s chairman, Ajit Pai, appeared in a video for conservative news website The Daily Caller.

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The origins of the video, however, weren’t entirely clear. Whose idea was it? Who wrote the script? Did the other FCC commissioners know about it? So Muckrock, a nonprofit organization that helps request and analyze government documents, filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the FCC four months ago for agency emails about the video, a request that would seem relatively innocuous.

The request was denied this week. The organization is now appealing the denial and considering a lawsuit.

Read more here.