Senators: Fake comments are identity theft

Post-Gazette Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — First fake news. Now fake comments.

A policy junkie who sifts through regulatory agencies’ public comments could be left with the wrong impression of where millions of people — including lawmakers — stand on net neutrality rules, which now prohibit internet service providers from adjusting traffic speeds or web access based on content.

U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, RPa., supports the Federal Communications Commission’s decision to rescind the Obama-era rules. U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., opposes the FCC’s decision.

But public comments made to the FCC, which are searchable online, show the opposite.

“I don’t want [internet service providers] to have the power to block websites, slow them down, give some sites an advantage over others, or split the internet into ‘fast lanes’ for companies that pay and ‘slow lanes’ for the rest,” says a public comment attributed to Mr. Toomey. The trouble is, he didn’t write it and believes just the opposite — that deregulation will encourage innovation.

And a comment wrongly attributed to Mr. Merkley supports the FCC’s repeal, which, in actuality, he opposes.

The Pew Research Center last year identified seven separate comments that had been submitted more than 500,000 times each. The one wrongly attributed to Mr. Toomey was among them, having been submitted 2.8 million times under different names.

Often, tens of thousands of identical comments were uploaded simultaneously, Pew found. Most of the repetitive comments that Pew identified were in support of net neutrality.

Mr. Toomey and Mr. Merkley consider the wrongly attributed comments to be examples of identity theft, and they want the FCC to do something about it.

“We are writing to express our concerns about these fake comments and the need to identify fraudulent behavior in the rulemaking process,” the senators wrote Monday in a joint letter to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai.

Thecomments wrongly attributed to them were made in August, but the senators only recently became aware of them. Mr. Toomey’s office was notified by Mr. Merkley’s office, where a staffer had come upon the comments while looking through thedatabase.

The senators have asked Mr. Pai whether the FCC is working with the Department of Justice and state attorneys general to identify the people who posted the fraudulent comments and to determine whether any laws were broken. They also asked the FCC whether comm e n t s w e r e filed by “bots,” or automated computer programs, whether any foreign governments submitted fake comments, and how it will protect against similar fraud going forward.

“The federal rulemaking process is an essential part of our democracy and allows Americans the opportunity to express their opinions on how government agencies decide important regulatory issues,” Mr. Toomey and Mr. Merkley wrote. “We need to prevent the deliberate misuse of Americans’ personal information and ensure that the FCC is working to protect against current and future vulnerabilities in its system.”

A spokeswoman for Mr. Pai did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The FCC decided in December to roll back net neutrality rules. Senate Democrats — with the support of three Republicans — voted to reverse the FCC’s decision. Republican leaders have not scheduled a vote in the House and are unlikely to without pressure from Democrats.

U.S. Rep. Mike Doyle, DForest Hills, is trying to provide that pressure by filing a discharge petition, meaning if a majority of House members sign, he can force a vote. Otherwise, net neutrality rules will expire June 11.