New York State Attorney General Expands Investigation Into Fraudulent 'Net Neutrality' Comments Submitted To FCC

The Attorney General (AG) for New York State has expanded its fraud investigation regarding net neutrality comments submitted to the U.S. Federal Communication Commission (FTC) website in 2017. The New York Times reported that the New York State AG has:

"... subpoenaed more than a dozen telecommunications trade groups, lobbying contractors and Washington advocacy organizations on Tuesday, seeking to determine whether the groups submitted millions of fraudulent public comments to sway a critical federal decision on internet regulation... The attorney general, Barbara D. Underwood, is investigating the source of more than 22 million public comments submitted to the F.C.C. during the battle over the regulations. Millions of comments were provided using temporary or duplicate email addresses, while others recycled identical phrases. Seven popular comments, repeated verbatim, accounted for millions more. The noise from the fake or orchestrated comments appears to have broadly favored the telecommunications industry..."

Also this month, the Center For Internet & Society reported the results of a study at Stanford University (bold emphasis added):

"In the leadup to the FCC's historic vote in December 2017 to repeal all net neutrality protections, 22 million comments were filed to the agency. But unfortunately, millions of those comments were fake. Some of the fake comment were part of sophisticated campaigns that filed fake comments using the names of real people - including journalists, Senators and dead people. The FCC did nothing to try to prevent comment stuffing and comment fraud, and even after the vote, made no attempt to help the public, journalists, policy makers actually understand what Americans actually told the FCC... This report used the 800,000 comments Kao identified as semantic standouts from form letter and fraud campaigns. These unique comments were overwhelmingly in support of keeping the 2015 Open Internet Order - in fact, 99.7% of comments opposed the repeal of net neutrality protections. This report then matched and sorted those comments to geographic areas, including the 50 states and every Congressional District..."

An investigation in 2017 by the New York State AG found that about 2 million of the comments submitted to the FCC about net neutrality "stole real Americans' identities." A follow-up investigation found that more than 9 million comments "used stolen identities."

The FCC, led by Trump appointee Ajit Pai, a former Verizon lawyer, repealed last year both broadband privacy and net neutrality protections for consumers. The FCC has ignored requests to investigate comments fraud. A December 2017 study of 1,077 voters found that most want net neutrality protections. President Trump signed the privacy-rollback legislation in April 2017. A prior blog post listed many historical abuses of consumers by some ISPs.

Some of the organizations subpoenaed by the New York State AG include (links added):

"... Broadband for America, Century Strategies, and MediaBridge. Broadband for America is a coalition supported by cable and telecommunications companies; Century Strategies is a political consultancy founded by Ralph Reed, the former director of the Christian Coalition; and MediaBridge is a conservative messaging firm..."

Reportedly, the New York AG has requested information from both groups which opposed and supported net neutrality protections. The New York AG operates a website where consumers can check for fake comments submitted to the FCC. (When you check, enter your name in quotes for a more precise search. And check the street address, since many people have the same name.) I checked. You can read my valid comment submitted to the FCC.

This whole affair is another reminder of how to attack and undermine a democracy by abusing online tools. A prior post discussed how social media has been abused.