That's the game plan the U.S. government's media regulator is reportedly following to release its plan to destroy net neutrality rules. The Federal Communications Commission is expected to drop its new plan on Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving. The rules could be voted on by mid-December, leaving the door open for internet providers to begin manipulating traffic.

It's a devilishly brilliant plan by the FCC and its chairman, Ajit Pai, who has made no secret of his wish to undo the benchmark rules put in place during Barack Obama's presidency. There will inevitably be plenty of people already enjoying their holiday break, and any major coverage on Wednesday will then be lost to a day of turkey, gravy, football, and indigestion, followed by three more days in which people won't be looking at the news.

This is the challenge that net neutrality advocates are facing, and they know it. Evan Greer, campaign director at Fight for the Future, posted on Reddit a month ago to start drumming up support.

"There's a reason that Pai is releasing a plan that he knows will be overwhelmingly unpopular with voters from across the political spectrum on one of the busiest travel days of the year when many journalists are out of the office," Greer wrote in an email.

Net neutrality is the concept that the internet should be an even playing field. Whether it's your cousin's blog or Google, net neutrality proponents argue all data should flow the same, meaning no particular persons or companies can be favored by the networks on which the data flows. That keeps big companies from paying for preferential treatment.


. . .


Sounding the alarm, however, isn't that easy to do—especially in the time frame required. Net neutrality advocates will have about three weeks before the December 15 meeting in which the FCC is expected to vote. Pai has thus far shown no interest in hearing from such advocates.

This has led Fight for the Future to focus on getting people to reach out to Congress. The organization set up www.battleforthenet.com as a place where people can easily call their representatives and encourage them to slow the FCC's efforts.