Anti-Net Neutrality Porn Parody Linked to 'Tea Party' Senator

LOS ANGELES—The news about FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler's new net neutrality proposal had barely hit the wires before someone had made and uploaded to YouTube a so-called porn parody the Daily Dot says comes with some "fairly strong production values." But, as the Dot discovered while digging a little deeper into the story, the video also has a link to Ben Sasse, a Republican freshman "Tea Party" senator from Nebraska, who is "himself an outspoken net neutrality opponent." That's kind of putting it mildly. On Wednesday, Sasse issued an email response to Wheeler's proposal that warned in the subject line, "Putin and Obama in charge of the Internet?" That same day, an outfit called Protect Internet Freedom, whose YouTube account had also been created Wednesday, uploaded the "porn parody" video, which, the Dot reports, "cites a website, protectinternetfreedom.com, which makes its intentions clear: 'The FCC’s move to oversee the Internet the same way they do landline phones will cost consumers more money and stifle the innovations that only a free Internet make possible.'" The connection to Sasse was relatively easy for the Daily Dot to deduce. "Responding to an emailed inquiry from the Daily Dot to the webmaster behind Protect Internet Freedom," wrote Kevin Collier for the site, "a man identifying himself as Jordan Gehrke claimed the campaign was founded by himself and Ethan Eilon, and that they had no affiliation with any Internet service provider (ISP) or industry group. While that may be directly true, Gehrke is a senior adviser to freshman Tea Party Senator Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), himself an outspoken net neutrality opponent." A direct connection is denied by Gehrke, who told the Dot, "PIF is in no way under Sen. Sasse's direction. He wrote a letter on behalf of the group because he agrees with the mission. That's it." As far as the parody goes, its only connection to porn is that it plays on the old "cable guy" trope, but its running joke about "Department of the Internet" inspectors intruding upon any sort of actual sex is overplayed to the point of death, sacrificing logic to score ideological points. As far as TechDirt is concerned, "The video makes no sense at all. You get the sense that some not particularly internet savvy (or, really, clever at all) telco wonks got together and said 'how do we make a viral video -- I know, let's pretend it's a porn film!' And then tried to shoehorn in some sort of message. But the 'message' appears to be that whoever put together the video doesn't know anything about what net neutrality is." Whatever the video's merits or lack thereof, or its connection to a freshman U.S. senator, the fact remains that wrapping it a porn parody is apparently getting it the attention is desired, which is not original either, considering Funny or Die got there first in November making the other side's case. Image: Screen shot from Department of the Internet: Installation.