Big fraud, little penalty
Remember “net neutrality”? Of course you do. It was one of the hot issues of 2017, when the Federal Communications Commission and Congress were flooded with more than 22 million emails and letters over the policy.
There was one hitch, though: Most of them were fake.
And for all that massive manipulation and corruption of an official government proceeding, no one appears likely to go to jail. At worst, a few companies will pay what amounts to petty cash for the broadband industry. And the big telecoms that benefited from this campaign won’t pay a penny of that themselves.
State and federal lawmakers have some serious work to do.
The deception is laid out in a report from New York Attorney General Letitia James looking at the FCC’S 2017 move to dismantle net neutrality rules. The rules prevent firms like AT&T, Comcast, and Charter that provide customers internet service from giving preference to certain traffic or slowing it down. The idea is to keep such companies from gaining an unfair advantage for either their own content or that of entities that pay extra for their data to move more quickly through their networks.
When the FCC under the Trump administration began a process to get rid of net neutrality, it faced massive public opposition that transcended party and ideological lines. The broadband industry sought to tip the scales by flooding the FCC and Congress with messages of support for repeal. Through its lobbying arm and a group it created, Broadband for America, the industry hired three “lead generation” firms that specialized in this sort of campaign. Presumably, they would identify and enlist citizens to submit public comments. In reality, they took names they bought or otherwise obtained and attached them to about 9 million comments and letters to make it appear as if there was widespread grassroots opposition to net neutrality — without actually getting all those people’s consent.
The investigation also found that a pro-net neutrality college student engaged in a deception of his own, making up 7.7 million names to oppose repeal. Another 1.6 million fake pro-neutrality comments came in from sources that have not been identified.
The three companies that perpetrated the fraud on behalf of the broadband industry will pay a combined $4.4 million — a drop in the bucket in the more than $100 billion revenue of the U.S. broadband industry. The broadband companies themselves won’t pay a dime.
Ms. James says the investigation found no evidence broadband providers had direct knowledge of the fraud, even if they largely ignored red flags and took steps to hide their involvement behind grassroots-looking front groups. Even laws that do apply to such fraud are weak and don’t apply clearly here, she maintains.
If that’s so, then the laws need work. This behavior turns the process of public comment into a sham. There should be real consequences — like the personal liability of jail time — for appropriating people’s identities in order to try to fraudulently influence government decision-making.
In the meantime, government agencies seeking public comment should make it easy for ordinary citizens to search those comments. They deserve to know at least if they’re on the side of the issue they would want to be.