The FCC Received 22 Million Comments on the Year of Vote to Repeal Net Neutrality. Nearly 18 Million

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: Law & Crime

The FCC Received 22 Million Comments on the Year of Vote to Repeal Net Neutrality. Nearly 18 Million Were Fake, Says New York’s Attorney General.

ADAM KLASFELD May 6th, 2021, 11:13 am

On the year former President Trump’s Federal Communications Commission voted to repeal net neutrality, the regulator was inundated with more than 22 million comments. Nearly 18 million of them were fake, and some 40 percent of those came from an influence campaign linked to the broadband industry, New York Attorney General Letitia James found in a 39-page report released on Thursday.

Some 8.5 million of the fake comments used the names and personal information of real people without their knowledge or consent, she added.

Net neutrality refers to the principle that broadband providers should treat all content equally, without blocking, slowing down, or charging to boost certain content. Advocates fiercely opposed its repeal, and the attorney general said that the broadband industry secretly funded a campaign that contributed to its demise. Three of the companies described as the “lead generators” of those campaigns—Fluent, Inc., Opt Intelligence, Inc., and React2Media, Inc.—have entered into settlements with the attorney general’s office.

“The settlements require the companies to pay $3.7 million, $550,000, and $150,000 respectively, for their misconduct,” the report states. “The settlements also impose comprehensive reforms for any future campaigns to protect consumers and prevent fraudulent comments.”

{snip}

Read more: https://lawandcrime.com/important/the-fcc-received-22-million-comments-on-the-year-of-vote-to-repeal-net-neutrality-nearly-18-million-were-fake-says-new-yorks-attorney-general/

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Hat tip, Joe.My.God.

New York AG: Broadband Industry Behind Millions Of Fake FCC Comments In Opposition To Net Neutrality
May 6, 2021

https://www.joemygod.com/2021/05/new-york-ag-broadband-industry-behind-millions-of-fake-fcc-comments-in-opposition-to-net-neutrality/

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and Kevin M. Kruse

NY AG report finds out of the 22 m net neutrality comments the FCC received in 2017, 18 m were fake

https://www.democraticunderground.com/111690641

It's easy to spot them, though, due to the identical wording.

Kevin M. Kruse Retweeted

https://twitter.com/KevinMKruse

'The OAG found that millions of fake comments were submitted through a secret campaign, funded by the country's largest broadband co's, to manufacture support for repeal of net neutrality rules... millions more were submitted by a 19yo college student using made-up identities...'

Link to tweet

[peppertree]

1. And this, of course, is how elections themselves would look if Repugs had their way

They no longer know how to fight - much less, win - a fair fight.

[pecosbob]

2. Ajit Pai was involved in this conspiracy.

[Budi]

4. Trump's own handpicked FCC Chairman

Ajit Varadaraj Pai is an American lawyer who served as chairman of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission from 2017 to 2021.
He has been a partner at the private-equity firm Searchlight Capital since April 2021.

[Pinback]

5. Former Verizon lawyer

Typical fox guarding the henhouse scenario when he was FCC chair.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/05/ajit-pai-joins-american-enterprise-institute-and-a-firm-that-invests-in-isps/

[Budi]

8. They were all in cahoots greasing each others palms.

ick.

[ancianita]

6. An independent inspector general found no evidence for that claim.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ajit_Pai

[Lasher]

3. Holy cow!

[Snarkoleptic]

7. Corporations get what corporations want.

Time to import democracy and get money out of politics.

[Takket]

9. this is an absolute outrage... and people should be locked up

[dalton99a]

10. Starting with that corporate whore Ajit Pai

[DSandra]

11. The Republican Party is the Loser Party, a party of lowlife losers who couldn't win a fair fight...

So they have to con and cheat in order to win.

[onenote]

18. There were more fake emails supporting net neutrality than opposing it

Neither side has clean hands.

See post 15

[onenote]

12. In the end the email comments didn't make a difference

Pai and the Republican members in the FCC were intent in repealing the Wheeler FCC’s net neutrality rules from the get go. And there actually were more fake emails supporting net neutrality then opposing it.

That doesn’t mean the groups that organized fake email campaigns shouldn't face consequences for their actions— they should. But it also means that government agencies should be wary of mass write in campaigns for or against a particular policy.

[Mysterian]

13. What is your evidence

there were more fake emails supporting net neutrality?

[onenote]

15. The OAG Report.

You can read the report here:https://ag.ny.gov/sites/default/files/oag-fakecommentsreport.pdf

See pages 27-28:

"In addition to the more than 8.5 million fake comments submitted to the FCC through BFA’s campaign opposing net neutrality, more than 9.3 million fake comments were submitted to the FCC that expressed support for net neutrality."

[Mysterian]

17. Thanks!

It did not show that in the posted article.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

16. The Final Rule is here:

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2018/02/22/2018-03464/restoring-internet-freedom

I can do some more looking later this afternoon.

{edited} Try this:

https://www.regulations.gov/document/FCC-2017-0200-0001

[Javaman]

14. internet providers should be turned into an utility. period.

okay, is it "a utility or "an utility"? one sounds better but is incorrect, the other is correct but sounds odd.

Which is which?