Over Half of Public Comments to FCC on Net Neutrality Appear Fake: Study

[DonViejo]

Source: U.S. News & World Report




Nov. 29, 2017, at 10:02 a.m.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - More than half of the 21.7 million public comments submitted to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission about net neutrality this year used temporary or duplicate email addresses and appeared to include false or misleading information, the Pew Research Center said on Wednesday.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, a Republican appointed by President Donald Trump, proposed in April to scrap the 2015 landmark net neutrality rules, moving to give broadband service providers sweeping power over what content consumers can access.

Pai has said the action would remove heavy-handed internet regulations. Critics have said it would let internet service providers give preferential treatment to some sites and apps and allow them to favor their own digital content. From April 27 to Aug. 30 the public was able to submit comments to the FCC on the topic electronically. Of those, 57 percent used either duplicate email addresses or temporary email addresses, while many individual names appeared thousands of times in the submissions, Pew said.

For example, "Pat M" was listed on 5,910 submissions, and the email address [e-mail] was used in 1,002 comments. TV host John Oliver supported keeping net neutrality earlier this on his HBO talk show.

Read more: https://www.usnews.com/news/technology/articles/2017-11-29/over-half-of-public-comments-to-fcc-on-net-neutrality-appear-fake-study

[Loubee]

1. This is only one small part

of the official Trump/GOP strategy in gaslighting America.

[pangaia]

6. Yes, of course. No question.

But John Oliver sent 1,002 emails?

Was that really him?

[getting old in mke]

9. Oliver provided information

and in particular a forwarding URL: http://gofccyourself.com and I'd guess that some of the people following the link left his name instead of theirs.

[dalton99a]

2. Kick

[Moostache]

3. The entire Trump error is illegitimate. Literally nothing he has done should stand...but it will.

This is the reality we inhabit...

Al Franken's misdeeds and actions are equated and conflated to equal Roy Moore's molestation of CHILDREN...
The misdeeds of congressmen are used to excuse the president's own actions regardless of contrition, volume or grasp on reality...
Republicans fall in line, Democrats fall on the sword...

There is no hope.
This country is doomed.
The Democratic Party of in-fighting cats will not protect it's own the way the lock-step GOP horde does it's own.

We are going to watch this tax abomination become law, then we will watch the spin turn it into a signature legislative accomplishment for Trump and the GOP to beat the Dem's over the head with in '18. When the economy goes into free-fall, the irrational and irresponsible tax cuts will not be cited, instead the GOP will trot out the empty chair pictures from yesterday as "proof" that it is not bankrupt Republican "ideas" causing the recession, but rather recalcitrant Democratic leaders that are to blame.

They will dust off the same old campaign ads demonizing Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Shumer (a woman! and a Jew! doncha know THEY are the problem, not the rich mother fucker laughing in the corner...) I wish I was wrong here...I wish that I lived in a rational and sane nation. I am not wrong and I do not live in a rational nation.

If we avoid a nuclear blast that kills millions in an instant that just may be the only "victory" we as progressives and liberals see for a very long time.

Roy Moore, for all the bluster and ink spilled, is going to be a senator from that hellhole next to Mississippi and Georgia.
Donald Trump will not resign and will continue making shit up on a daily or dare say hourly basis.
Al Franken and John Conyers will end up leaving the government because self-righteous Democrats will believe its the moral high ground...and while we die on that hill, the GOP and their bomb-throwing asshole base will gleefully destroy the last vestiges of the social safety net.

The groundwork is laid, the cake is in the oven and the product is going to be the Second Great Depression, followed by a Second Civil War. The loss of life and civility is going to be horrific in scope and nature and it is coming.

Sadly, we are collectively the same as the Sean Connery character in "The Untouchables"...while we confidently proclaim the GOP is bringing a "knife to a gun fight", they have a sniper outside the door with a waiting Tommy gun, set to blow us away without a second's thought. The people too...the outright lies and deception being used ensure this.

My depression since last November is reaching terminal levels...I don't know that I want to be around to witness what I can see coming down the tracks.

[pangaia]

7. I fear you are right..

Mueller. courts.. etc..
What courts..??

[bucolic_frolic]

4. Fascist manufactured fake comments

and Trump fingerpoints at the opposition and calls them fake news

This upheaval must be exposed and stopped

[turbinetree]

5. To make this announcement public for the FCC and the asshole in charge

I signed one of those letters-----------------now tell me it was duplicate now................

We the public paid for the internet thorough DARPA , its is "ours in the first and last place".............


https://www.darpa.mil/about-us/timeline/modern-internet

https://www.darpa.mil/about-us/timeline/arpanet

[L. Coyote]

8. Truth is a thing of the past for republicans and financial interests.

I hope this revelation dooms the attempt.

[vkkv]

10. 10.85 MILLION isn't saying enough ?????????????? nt

[Julian Englis]

11. If Republicans don't care Russian election interference, why should this bother them?

This is just corporate interests doing to the FCC comments what the Russians did to the elections. It's clearly undermines democracy. Corporations probably just see this like biased, deceptive ads, high pressure lobbying, or political donations.