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FCC net neutrality process corrupted by fake comments and vanishing consumer complaints, officials say
Key Excerpts from Article on Website of Washington Post
Posted: November 27th, 2017
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2017/11/24...
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. 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. 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. Some consumers have complained ... that their own names or addresses have been hijacked and used to submit false comments to the FCC. Public comments play an important role at the FCC, which typically solicits feedback from Americans before it votes. At its Dec. 14 meeting, the FCC plans to repeal Obama-era regulations that aimed at ensuring all websites, large and small, are treated equally by Internet providers. Without the rules, Internet providers could begin charging some websites or services more to reach ... regular Internet users. Internet providers have also spent significant time and money lobbying for the regulations to be reversed. And some of the public comments ... bear a striking resemblance to industry talking points.
Note: In the first quarter of 2017 alone, AT&T, Comcast and Verizon spent $11 million lobbying against net neutrality. A Guardian article makes it clear that "pretty much everyone outside the large cable companies supports the FCCs net neutrality rules." For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles on corruption in government and in the corporate world.
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