It became harder to tell the government how you feel about pending rules and regulations starting on Friday, thanks to a backend change to the website where people submit public comments. Regulations.gov removed the POST function from its API, a critical piece of tech that allowed third party organizations to bypass the websites terrible user interface.The General Services Administration (GSA), which runs regulations.gov, notified API key holders in an email last Monday morning that theyd soon lose the ability to POST directly to the sites API. POST is a common function that allows users to send data to an application. POST allowed third party organizations like Fight for the Future (FFTF), the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), and Public Citizen gather comments from their supporters using their own forms and submit them to the government later.Regulations.gov has been instrumental as a method for people to speak up against terrible government regulations. During the fight over Net Neutrality in 2017, FFTF gathered more than 1.6 million comments about the pending rule and submitted them all to the FCC in one day by POSTing to the API.Organizations who wanted to acquire an API key had to sign up and agree to the GSAs terms and conditions. In the Monday email from the GSA, organizations that had previously used POST were told theyd lost access to the function at the end of the week.As of Friday, the POST method will no longer be allowed for all users with the exception of approved use cases by federal agencies. Any attempted submissions will result in a 403 error response, a copy of the email reviewed by 404 Media said. We apologize for not being able to provide advanced notice. I wanted to reach out to the impacted API key holders as early as possible. We are in the process of updating the references to our POST API on Regulations.gov and https://open.gsa.gov/api/regulationsgov/.The email noted that groups and constituencies can still submit comments through the website, but the sites user interface sucks. Users have to track down the pending regulation they want to comment on by name or docket number, click the comment button and then fill out a form, attach a file, provide an email address, provide some personal details, and fight a CAPTCHA.The experience on our campaign sites right now is like, we make our impassioned case for why you should care about this and then give you one box to type something and click a button. But the experience going forward is going to be like: Alright now heres a link and some instructions on how to fill out your taxes, Ken Mickles, FFTFs chief technology officer said.404 Media confirmed that multiple agencies received the email and were cut off from using POST on the regulations.gov API. The tool offered an easier means for the public to provide input by allowing organizations to collect and submit comments on their behalf. Now, those interested in submitting comments will be forced to navigate the arduous and complicated system on regulations.gov, Katie Tracy, senior regulatory policy advocate at Public Citizen, told 404 Media. This will result in fewer members of the public leaving comments and result in agencies not having critical input on how their work affects peoples lives and businesses.The GSAs email did not explain why this sudden change occurred and the GSA did not return 404 Medias request for comment. But the organizations we spoke with had their own theories. Disabling this useful tool appears to be yet another attempt by the Trump administration to silence members of the public who are speaking out about dangerous regulatory rollbacks. We hope the GSA will reverse course immediately, Tracy said.A pair of Trump Executive Orders lay out the framework for this GSA action. Ensuring Lawful Governance and Implementing the Presidents Department of Government Efficiency Deregulatory Initiative directs the government to commence the deconstruction of the overbearing and burdensome administrative state. And Directing the Repeal of Unlawful Regulations tells agencies they can dispense with the comment process entirely when they can.I think it follows the trend of just shutting out public access or voices that the administration doesnt want, Matt Lane, senior policy counsel at FFTF told 404 Media. It really does seem targeted exclusively at reducing the amount of public engagement that they get on these dockets through these tools that we and other folks provide.