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A Bot Is Flooding the FCC's Website With Fake Anti-net Neutrality Comments (zdnet.com)
An anonymous reader writes: A bot is thought to be behind the posting of thousands of messages to the FCC's website, in an apparent attempt to influence the results of a public solicitation for feedback on net neutrality. A sizable portion of those comments are fake, and are repeating the same manufactured response again and again, ZDNet reports. So much so that more than 58,000 identical comments have been posted since the feedback doors were opened, now representing over one-in-ten comments on the FCC's feedback docket. The comment reads as following: "The unprecedented regulatory power the Obama Administration imposed on the internet is smothering innovation, damaging the American economy and obstructing job creation. I urge the Federal Communications Commission to end the bureaucratic regulatory overreach of the internet known as Title II and restore the bipartisan light-touch regulatory consensus that enabled the internet to flourish for more than 20 years."
ZDNet claims that all other comments follow the same pattern: the bot appears to cycle through names in an alphabetical order, leaving the person's name, and postal address and zip code. And some -- if not all -- of these comments are fake, the publication adds, claiming that it reached out to the people and many of them confirmed that they had not left any comments on the website.
ZDNet claims that all other comments follow the same pattern: the bot appears to cycle through names in an alphabetical order, leaving the person's name, and postal address and zip code. And some -- if not all -- of these comments are fake, the publication adds, claiming that it reached out to the people and many of them confirmed that they had not left any comments on the website.
"The unprecedented regulatory power the Obama Administration imposed on the internet is smothering innovation, damaging the American economy and obstructing job creation. I urge the Federal Communications Commission to end the bureaucratic regulatory overreach of the internet known as Title II and restore the bipartisan light-touch regulatory consensus that enabled the internet to flourish for more than 20 years."
That was my comment, and I can assure you I am entirely real person.
-Anonymous Coward
Watch Ajit Pai use that as enough excuse to "give the people what they want" and destroy net neutrality, regardless if it only accounts for 10% of the posts.
Who am I kidding, he doesn't care to explain himself...
As much as I wish ISPs and their shills would be this transparent, this seems like a false flag to me. ISPs exert enough influence that they don't need to fabricate a grassroots effort, let alone one that's so clearly astroturf. OTOH, I can believe some script kiddy thinking this would somehow appear damaging to ISPs.
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
I suppose it's possible that someone is trying to invalidate any legitimate responses from the public on this subject by doing this.
I also suppose it's possible that some well-meaning idiot is doing it thinking they're helping the cause of Net Neutrality.
Either way they need to knock it the hell off. Stop attempting to subvert the will of the people.
Yeah sure. Never mind that petitions that get passed around for just about any cause generally use the same text, with an option to add some text of your own, along with your name. If that's the standard being used then I suppose it's easy enough to just toss any petition (or set of comments) into the bin and say "LOL, those are all fake!". Apparently we're now living in the era of 'Fake everything'; fake public comments, fake news, fake POTUS..
end the bureaucratic regulatory overreach of the internet
It is arguably overreach -- to take over such a massive thing unenvisioned by Congress. However, if that is the botwrangler's concern (it isn't) this is not helpful to your argument.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
Considering that most real postings will most likely be pro-neutrality, since the average user has exactly zero to gain and everything to lose from abandoning net neutrality, I'd guess that's pretty much the goal.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Amateurish. Nothing to see here. Move along.
Caution: Contents under pressure
The wild west aspect didn't make the net flourish, it was the fact it was for nerds. Once the plebs got into the mix everything got screwed up, one aspect of which is they are dumb and desperate enough to be taken advantage of, leading to a need for regulations like net neutrality to ensure nerds (the people who the internet was built by/for) don't end up in some bureaucratic mess with ISPs demanding an extra cost for every service used (or worse, hosted.)
of how to win friends and influence people.
Not.
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
The attempt seems pitifully inept. To me, it seems designed to grab attention, which makes me suspicious that something else is going on. Distraction from some other part of the process, or for something completely unrelated?
Of course, it could just be a script kiddie or some other idiot. Hanlon's razor may apply here: "any sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice"
Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
MOAR dragon tits on Game of Thrones!
The POTUS will do the destruction on his own with his minions. He is the king of making accusations without any evidence. I see it as an attempt to distract the people. This shouldn't be about political parties. It's about what is right for the people, not the corporate overlords that our government officials pander to.
http://www.gofccyourself.com/ ?
Beware of the Redittor who loans you a Sharpie.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Well they said it was a *Distributed* DOS attack...
What's more distributed than all the devices of a certain broadband provider, and who would have the list of names and addresses associated with those routers?
There's no way some random hacker felt that passionately *against* the concept of net neutrality...right? I mean, the only people who support it are luddite ultra-conservatives. Someone must have been paid handsomely for this. (I'm looking at you, Verizon.)
Democracy in action, Fuck Yeah!! About time the corporations with a vested interest in the outcome can properly voice their concerns to squeeze out the humans.
Although his server farm runs on endless power from lakes of boiling sulfur, we could probably take out his Comcast fiber.
Why are they not using CAPTCHA or similar bot spotting measures ?, the days of just accepting a naked form post are long gone, even your lowly Wordpress installation has the option for comments thanks to bots, you would think the GOV would know this.
Whenever I read these articles it gets me thinking about when water wells are poisoned. Even after they are cleaned up there is always suspicion about how safe is it to drink the water. Even a rumor casts doubts, it then becomes nobody uses it unless other options have been exhausted (i.e. you will die in a matter of hours unless you drink this water now).
Besides issues of Net Neutrality, what about telecommunications and broadcasters? If they don't follow FCC regs, will there be consequences? What about companies that sell radios? Is there someone competent they meet Part 90, 95, 15 (and other applicable Parts)? All these items from cellphone jammers to wireless video transmitters that operate in same freq band as aircraft transponders, are we confident FCC will properly deal with these mischief makers?
mfwright@batnet.com
by little bitches. George Soros and MediaMeddles are the new script kiddies.
We just had another post claiming that the DDOS and use of bots against the FCC was fake.
... does not a "DDOS" entail.
But many pro Net Neutrality commenters are also the same. This is because websites direct people on what to say or have an automated system that does it for them. They just have to put in their name and email and the website provides the rest. It's completely plausible that some anti-net-neutrality organizations are using the same tactic and technology.