Amanda Holpuch

The COVID-19 crisis is exposing how the cracks in the US’s creaking digital infrastructure are potentially putting lives at risk, exclusive research shows. With most of the country on lockdown and millions relying on the internet for work, healthcare, education and shopping, research by M-Lab, an open source project which monitors global internet performance, showed that internet service slowed across the country after the lockdown. “This is going to kill people,” said Sascha Meinrath, a professor at Penn State University and co-founder of M-Lab.

Facebook was in discussions with major medical institutions about sharing user and patient data for a research project.

The US Federal Communications Commission website reported technical difficulties because of heavy traffic hours after comedian John Oliver called on viewers to share their thoughts with the agency about what he called “cable company fuckery.”

“We need you to get out and, for once in your lives, focus your indiscriminate rage in a useful direction,” Oliver said. “Seize your moment my lovely trolls, turn on caps lock, and fly my pretties, fly, fly!”

And, it would appear, they did. Just after the segment aired on HBO, Last Week Tonight, and its fans, said the FCC comment feature was not working. The FCC confirmed that its system was experiencing technical difficulties because of heavy traffic, after Oliver's video was posted and widely shared online.

The next day, it had been viewed nearly 800,000 times. More than 47,000 public comments have been filed on the proposal in the past thirty days. One comment blasted "cable company fuckery," using Oliver's line. Another user cited a claim made by Oliver on the show: "It is embarrassing that Estonia has higher download speeds at lower prices than the USA." One profanity-ridden post concluded with: "John Oliver told me to do this."