BlankThis all sounds as a fishy way to kill net neutrality as we know it.
Net neutrality process 'corrupted' by fake comments and vanishing complaints,
officials say By Brian Fung Washington Post .
As the Federal Communications Commission prepares to dismantle its net
neutrality rules for internet providers, a mounting backlash from agency critics
is zeroing in on what they say are thousands of fake or automated comments
submitted to the FCC that unfairly skewed the policymaking process.
Allegations about anomalies in the record are quickly becoming a central
component of a campaign by online activists and some government
officials to discredit the FCC's plan. "The process the FCC has employed," wrote
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman this week in a letter to the
FCC, "has been corrupted by the fraudulent use of Americans' identities. For the
past six months, Schneiderman continued, the New York attorney general's
office has been reviewing the comments filed at the FCC on net neutrality. It
found that "hundreds of thousands" of submissions may have impersonated New
York residents a potential violation of state law. But, he said, the FCC has
declined to provide further evidence that could help move the investigation
forward, such as data logs and other information. Some consumers have complained
that their own names or addresses have been hijacked and used to submit
false comments to the FCC that they did not support. Others have pointed to the
bizarre appearance of comments submitted by people who are deceased. Public
comments play an important role at the FCC, which typically solicits feedback
from Americans before it votes to make significant policy changes. The agency
didn't respond to a request for comment. The comments targeted by Internet
activists largely back the FCC's decision to repeal Obama-era regulations aimed
at ensuring all websites, large and small, are treated equally by internet
providers. Consumer groups fear that without the rules, internet providers could
begin charging some websites or services more to reach their customers regular
internet users, who may ultimately bear the cost of the new fees. They also
say internet providers could artificially speed up services they own or have
special relationships with, to the detriment of start-ups and small businesses.
For their part, internet providers have promised not to block or slow down
content that they do not like. But internet providers have also spent
significant
time and money lobbying for the regulations to be reversed. And some of the
public comments, critics say, bear a striking resemblance to industry talking
points. "It was particularly chilling to see these spam comments all in one
place, as they are exactly the type of policy arguments and language you expect
to see in industry comments on the proposed repeal," wrote Jeff Kao, a data
scientist who published a study of the pro-repeal comments Thursday, in a blog
post. Like Schneiderman, Kao performed his own analysis of the net neutrality
comment record. Using an algorithm to sort out duplicate entries, Kao said
he was then able to apply another algorithm to identify the remaining comments
that could be considered "unique. Further analysis revealed that even some
of the unique submissions shared common language and syntax, suggesting they
weren't unique at all but perhaps written by a computer program in ways that
made each submission appear slightly different. For example, one submission read
"Citizens, as opposed to Washington bureaucrats, should be empowered to
buy whatever products they prefer. Another retained much the same format but
with certain words rearranged: "Individual citizens, as opposed to Washington
bureaucrats, should be able to select whichever services they desire. While it
is common for advocacy campaigns to recruit people to sign and submit form
letters to the FCC, Kao said that those who supported keeping the rules were far
more likely to write personal, heartfelt messages. Despite the polarizing
nature of the policy fight, few commenters who supported the repeal were moved
to develop their own, original messages an indication to Kao that many in
the pro-repeal camp may have been bots, or spam. "It's scary to think that
organic, authentic voices in the public debate are being drowned out by a chorus
of spambots," Kao wrote. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has said repeatedly that when it
comes to the comments on net neutrality, the agency's rulemaking process
would favor quality over quantity. But Jessica Rosenworcel, a Democratic FCC
commissioner who supports keeping the rules, said Pai needs to do more. "They
need to get out from behind their desks and computers and speak to the public
directly," Rosenworcel wrote in a Los Angeles Times op-ed. "The FCC needs
to hold hearings around the country to get a better sense of how the public
feels about the proposal. Calling the FCC comment system "a mess," Rosenworcel
added that some 50,000 consumer complaints appear to have disappeared from the
agency's records. She also highlighted a Government Accountability Office
probe into an alleged denial-of-service attack that the FCC claimed prevented
consumers from filing submissions on the net neutrality plan.
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