[ad_1]
The New York Attorney General's office has assigned "more than a dozen professional groups in the telecommunications sector, lobbyists and advocacy organizations to Washington," the New York Times reported Tuesday, seeking to determine they were at the origin of the flood of false public comments submitted to the federal government. Communication Decision of the Commission to revoke the rules of network neutrality last year.
Barbara Underwood, who became the state's attorney general earlier this year after the disgraceful resignation of his predecessor Eric Schneiderman, wants to know if any industry groups have been behind a huge effort to pollute 22 million people. letters filed in the FCC electronic filing system with fraudulent shipments. Many comments were classified using temporary or duplicate email addresses, and millions were repeated textually using industry-specific scripts. A recent study by researchers at Stanford University found that only 800,000 messages were unique and 99.7% of them opposed the FCC decision.
The Times wrote that the Underwood team had already determined that millions of comments submitted in the mass were using real names, which amounted to identity fraud, and that there seemed to be a clear link with a number of companies involved in the debate on the neutrality of the Internet:
Most striking is that many comments about the neutrality of the Internet were falsely presented as real people, which amounted to massive acts of virtual identity theft. Some comments used the name of deceased people. Underwood's investigators estimated that nearly half of all comments – over nine million – used stolen identities.
The survey retraced the comments submitted through group uploads and through a French computer center. a service that allows lawyers to solicit public comment on their own websites and then forward them to the agency. The investigators identified four categories of seemingly fraudulent comments, each of which appeared to have been associated with a particular network of advocacy organizations, professional groups and consultants, including at least some of the two sides. of the debate.
Sources told The Times that three companies have been named to subpoenas, including Broadband for America, an anti-net neutrality coalition, a coalition against net neutrality, former director of Christian Coalition Ralph Reed, Century Strategies, and the "conservative courier company," Bridge Bridge. (As the paper notes, one of Media Bridge's press releases claimed that its client, American Commitment, had "submitted close to 800,000 comments" on the issue.) Century Strategies told the Times that the Attorney General's investigation should focus on pro-net neutrality groups.
However, the Wall Street Journal reported that advocates of net neutrality rules have also been named, including Fight for the Future and Free Press. The paper also wrote that Media Bridge's managing partner, Shane Cory, the former project director of the Right Project Veritas, said his group had submitted what he thought were real comments but that "bad actors" could have slipped into it. Cory blamed the manager. on the FCC comment system, which, he said, did not have tools to protect against abuse:
He stated that part of the blame lies with government agencies that impose no limit on how comments are posted, not requiring any identity checks or commonly tools used to harm the robots. Mr. Pai acknowledged the problem and recently told Congress that the FCC was considering improving its comment system to avoid falsehoods.
"Unfortunately, without limit, it's the Wild West," said Cory. "The corruption of the public process will occur, especially when billion dollar issues are at stake."
A spokesman for the free press told the newspaper: "We are responding to their requests and welcome this investigation."
As BuzzFeed News noted, Ajit Pai, president of FCC and appointed by Donald Trump, has already cited the number of comments made in support of the decision to revoke the rules (although some polls revealed that he was extremely unpopular). This is despite the fact that massive spammy charges in the commenting process were prevalent months before the FCC Board of Commissioners voted on it. The FCC has also spread lies about a non-existent cyber attack on the comment system after the May 7, 2017 segment of John Oliver, host of HBO. Last week tonight asking viewers to submit comments, which led to accusations that he was deliberately downplaying public comments against the repeal.
"BC's public comment process has been tainted by millions of false comments," Underwood told The Times in a statement. "The law protects New Yorkers from deception and misuse of their identity. My office will get to the bottom of things and hold accountable to those who use stolen identities to distort public opinion about the neutrality of the internet. "
[New York Times/Wall Street Journal]Source link
