FCC GETS NET NEUTRALITY COMMENTS FROM THE DEAD, CO-OPTED IDENTITIES, GROUP SAYS

The FCC, which is soliciting public comment about its attempt to roll back net neutrality rules, has received more than 2.7 million comments so far. But how many of those comments are fake?

An internet advocacy group on Thursday sent FCC Chairman Ajit Pai a letter, asking him to remove fake online comments that they say could number in the hundreds of thousands.

Fourteen people, including two from the Bay Area, whose names are attached to anti-net neutrality comments signed the letter, saying “our names and personal information were used to file comments we did not make to the Federal Communications Commission.”

They include Joel Mullaney, a software engineer from Watertwin, Massachusetts. He reportedly found his name and address attached to a comment that slammed net neutrality rules adopted under President Obama’s administration as anti-innovation and bad for the American economy.

“It was pretty ridiculous,” Mullaney told the Guardian. “That’s pretty much the exact opposite of what I think.”

The rules adopted in 2015 gave the FCC the authority to regulate internet service providers under Title II of the Communications Act. The rules — adopted after a long and bitter fight that saw a record number of public comments sent to the FCC — are meant to uphold the principle that all internet traffic should be treated equally.

Pai and his anti-regulation supporters, such as the big cable and internet companies, want to gut the rules. They say such rules stifle innovation and broadband investment. Tech companies, which threw their support behind the rules a few years ago, largely disagree with that position.

A couple of weeks ago, ZDNet reported that bots seemed to be behind many of the anti-net neutrality comments being posted on the FCC’s website. Before that, as we reported, the FCC said its website was hit by distributed denial-of-service attacks that made the site inaccessible or slow after comedian John Oliver urged people to send their comments to the agency in support of net neutrality.

Pai suggested during a recent news conference that the FCC won’t be removing fake comments.