Broadband Companies Faked Anti-Net Neutrality FCC Comments, Report Says – By Sara Boboltz (Huff Post) / May 6 2021
Of the 22 million comments submitted during the public comment period, around 18 million were not genuine, a state attorney general’s office says.
New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office has revealed after an extensive investigation that the vast majority ― around 80% ― of comments made to the Federal Communications Commission about proposed changes to net neutrality laws were faked.
Around 40%, or 8.5 million comments, were funded by internet service providers in order to protect their interests. They included fabricated comments from dead people, some of which were discovered by their loved ones.
Although the fact that some of the FCC comments were fake was known back in 2017, the new report out of James’ office reveals the massive scale of the operation.
The report, released Thursday, detailed “a secret campaign, funded by the country’s largest broadband companies, to manufacture support for the repeal of existing net neutrality rules” in 2017.
