Over the last few weeks, critics have attacked Ajit Pai online, protesters have covered his house in cardboard signs and he has publicly squabbled with celebrities including Alyssa Milano, Mark Ruffalo and Cher.

Why? Because Pai, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission and former Verizon lawyer, plans to scrap Obama-era net neutrality protections and is ignoring widespread outcry against it.

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“This is a green light for the broadband industry to figure out how to suck as much money from the internet economy as possible,” said Ryan Singel, media and strategy fellow at Stanford Law School’s Center for Internet and Society.

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“It’s muddying the debate. There’s a big difference between the companies people use online and the pipes that get us to them,” said Singel, echoing words by Tim Berners-Lee in an interview with the Guardian last month.

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