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Investigation Demanded Over Fake FCC Comments Submitted By Dead People (bbc.com)
An anonymous reader writes:
Fight for the Future has found another issue with the fake comments submitted to the FCC opposing net neutrality. "The campaign group says that some of the comments were posted using the names and details of dead people," according to the BBC. The exact same comment was also submitted more than 7,000 times using addresses in Colorado, where a reporter discovered that contacting the people at those addresses drew reactions which included "I have never seen this before in my life" and "No, I did not post this comment. In fact, I disagree with this comment." Fight for the Future also knocked on doors in Tampa, Florida, where the few people who answered "were shocked to hear that their name and address were publicly listed alongside a political message they did not necessarily understand or agree with." An alleged commenter in Montana told a reporter she didn't even know what net neutrality was.
14 people have already signed Fight for the Future's official complaint to the FCC, which calls for notification of all people affected, an investigation, and the immediate removal of all fake comments from the public docket. "Based on numerous media reports, nearly half a million Americans may have been impacted by whoever impersonated us," states the letter, "in a dishonest and deceitful campaign to manufacture false support for your plan to repeal net neutrality protections."
Fight for the Future says they've already verified "dozens" of instance of real people discovering a fake comment was submitted in their name -- and that in addition, more than 2,400 people have already used their site to contact their state Attorneys General demanding an investigation. They note the FCC has taken no steps to remove the fake comments from its docket, "risking the safety and privacy of potentially hundreds of thousands of people," while a campaign director at Fight for the Future added, "For the FCC's process to have any legitimacy, they simply cannot move forward until an investigation has been conducted."
14 people have already signed Fight for the Future's official complaint to the FCC, which calls for notification of all people affected, an investigation, and the immediate removal of all fake comments from the public docket. "Based on numerous media reports, nearly half a million Americans may have been impacted by whoever impersonated us," states the letter, "in a dishonest and deceitful campaign to manufacture false support for your plan to repeal net neutrality protections."
Fight for the Future says they've already verified "dozens" of instance of real people discovering a fake comment was submitted in their name -- and that in addition, more than 2,400 people have already used their site to contact their state Attorneys General demanding an investigation. They note the FCC has taken no steps to remove the fake comments from its docket, "risking the safety and privacy of potentially hundreds of thousands of people," while a campaign director at Fight for the Future added, "For the FCC's process to have any legitimacy, they simply cannot move forward until an investigation has been conducted."
Elvis has left the building.
Keep in mind that these are leftists who are demanding an investigation. Leftists should not have a voice in this matter. We need less FCC regulation, not more, if we want businesses to succeed and the American economy to grow. Leftists hate America and have been trying to impose their ridiculous and harmful policies for decades. Keep in mind that Memorial Day is coming up on Monday. Our troops have fought and died to protect us from everything the left stands for. If you love America and support our troops, you'll oppose leftists in all they try to do. Leftists hate America and hate our troops.
Most of the comments submitted by dead people were actually in support of net neutrality. If anyone is.committing fraud, it's the Democrats.
Remember in the election there were a number of black churches that were burned and spray panted with TRUMP and it turned out it was members of the church that did it. Now those people are in jail but it goes to show what can happen. If you want a lot of attention what do you do.. you pump a lot of fake posts into that requests for responses and then it gets News Time. No one is going to be talking about this unless there is a Scandal Attached to it.. maybe that is unfortunate. However playing Dirty will eventually track back to someone with less than honest motives. It is not going to end up being Comcast or Verizon executives that did this. Everyone with a brain knows that.
Those dead people are fine upstanding Chicagoans. I will not let my city be besmirched this way.
All this investigation over some web site comments that have no legal sway whatsoever, but let's ignore it when dead people cast votes in real elections, when there's reports of people being bussed around to vote multiple times, or when illegal aliens were being encouraged by the current sitting president to vote without fear of repercussions.
Yep, the priorities are all in good order...
But not in an actual election...
Or requiring voter ID...
But FCC commentary on Net Neutrality they want ID, blood tests and triple verified addresses with MFA.
I don't know what it is about network neutrality but every single time there is anything about it, it brings out the slashdot anon trolls en masse.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
What you are looking at is an attempt to discredit Net Neutrality. These stories are attempting to create an impression that the only people who support net-neutrality are cranks and liars. They might be true, undoubtedly, there are cranks and liars who support net-neutrality, just as there are, undoubtedly, cranks and liars who oppose net-neutrality.
Nearly any large issue has cranks and liars on both sides. However, there is clearly an attempt underway to associate support for net-neutrality with cranks and liars.
What? You want leftists to care about nonexistent dead voting fraud? How about asking them to worry whether Santa has an entry visa?
I find it impossible to believe such an upstanding businessman as Trump would allow false information to disrupt the glorious free-market enterprise that he's trying to sell the internet off to.
Dead people are people too!
If public comments matter this much, that's a clear sign these rules shouldn't be made by a small unelected board. Rather they should be made by the public, by having elected representatives pass a law.
There were thousands posts for net neutrality that were obvious "robo calls". Be fair and blame both sides.
Big assumption. I'd look at lobbying firms representing companies that are publicly or privately resisting net neutrality. And I mean privately in that some companies publicly support it and privately lobby against it. Those with something to gain by prioritizing internet traffic. You know who you are. Start in Silicon Valley.
But a blanket charge of Trump trollish behavior makes no sense given the real names and addresses used.
THis is interesting coincidence::
https://www.comcastroturf.com/
enter Butterfield as search term
End up at
https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs/searc...?
With results of 17 Butterfield surnames all reporting
exact same text . All submitted their FCC filing
on exact same date. Huh.
I"m sure there is nothing to see here so safe
to assume FCC will just accept them all as legit.
Something between the lines jumps out and bites your arm off. Soltan Gris / London
It favors the established elit (white patriarchy) over the others trying to access the internet to further their condition. Very regressist!
It's a company called DCI Group, this is not their first or last fake consumer front groups.
http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/firmsum.php?id=D000021952
Seems to be Verizon funding this one.
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Talk:DCI_Group
e.g. 2001, they create a fake group called "ATL", does this sound familiar?
"I get letters from dead people
In August 2001 the Los Angeles Times reported that ATL was behind a “carefully orchestrated nationwide campaign to create the impression of a surging grass-roots movement” behind Microsoft. “The campaign, orchestrated by a group partly funded by Microsoft, goes to great lengths so that the letters appear to be spontaneous expressions from ordinary citizens. Letters sent in the last month are printed on personalized stationery using different wording, color and typefaces—details that distinguish those efforts from common lobbying tactics that go on in politics every day.” Although FLS-DCI has not publicly claimed responsibility for generating the letters, they are consistent with the company’s own description of the word produced by its “letter desk” service: “all unique, but conveying your desired message.”
"According to the Times, the campaign was discovered when Utah’s Attorney General at the time, Mark Shurtleff, received letters “purportedly written by at least two dead people . . . imploring him to go easy on Microsoft Corp. for its conduct as a monopoly. The pleas, along with about 400 others from Utah citizens,” included at least one from the nonexistent city of Tucson, Utah.
The below ones seem perfectly genuine and drive the point home with well-reasoned arguments:
Browse FCC for more.
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
We all know the Democrats are fond of making up everything else, so faking support for NN is right up their alley.
Does the sound like a Trump supporter to you:
"Hey, Indian cocksucker, you don't belong here. Leave the country now. Do not fuck with my Internet connectivity. You're a real jagoff.
I support strong net neutrality backed by Title 2 oversight of ISPs."
That is a post IN SUPPORT of NN. That is the kind of people you have chosen to stand with, real bigots as opposed to imagined ones.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
>"An alleged commenter in Montana told a reporter she didn't even know what net neutrality was. "
Actually, based on my dealings with "every day people" I estimate that perhaps as many as 98% of people either have no idea what net neutrality is or have highly inaccurate information about what it is. But this seems typical on any highly technical or abstract subject.
Everyone -- note that this article is being spammed hard by "Anonymous Cowards" sprouting pro-Putin and pro-Trump talking points.
And in effect anti-net-neutrality.
Adjust your skepticism accordingly. They're rattled -- there's been a strong uptick in Putinbot activity in the last few days, which makes me wonder if pro-Western forces are getting closer to the truth on Kremlingate.
In the absence of Slashdot waking up to themselves and getting rid of "Anonymous Coward", you'll have to wade through a lot of Putinbot spam in the meantime.
Has anyone bothered to do a check on a sample of pro-net neutrality comments to see if similar problems exist there, or are only anti-nn comments worth investigating?
That seemed small to me given the number of people signing petitions these days. The reason for it is that these are the people who signed the letter when it was originally drafted. There's no provision to add your own name to this letter, which is kind of too bad, because I'd sign on to it if I could. In this day and age, I wonder if having "only" 14 signatories to a letter (who aren't well known in some relevant field) detracts from the power of the message.
...Dead can vote, then the Dead can comment!
"I'm a dirty white tomcat, enter my world..."
Dead people want an investigation?
Dead people are already being discriminated against already on a massive scale. For example they aren't even legally allowed to own property anymore, but must work through internediaries like foundations, trust funds, banks, and lawyers. And now you want to rob them of their voice too?
That's crass vitalism, that is!
This is something we from the grassroots action group "Dead does not mean buried !" take a stand against !
Beside which, we prefer the term "differently alive", thank you very much.
All laws, decisions and rules made by the FCC are now hereby null and void.
Enjoy, hackers.
great list.. sortable alpha fname, mname, lname.
Does anyone know how to easily search through the mess to find instances of my name being abused?
when you can just steal somebody else's?
'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
What a stupid move from net neutrality opponents.
It would have been easy for Trump appointed FCC to remove net neutrality because "we won elections and we are legitimate to act on that". Now with obvious cheating, the change will never look legitimate.
14 people have already signed Fight for the Future's official complaint to the FCC
Seriously? FOURTEEN people?
SMH
Ken
Sounds like the basis for a movie.
So another example of if you cant get support for something, just fake it. Works for polls. HAH
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." - Arthur C. Clarke
It needs to be emphasized: this is not a voting process.
In the US regulatory process, a regulator like the FCC is bound to follow the laws passed by our representatives in Congress. Once the chambers pass a bill, that's the end of the vote counting, and the rest is implementing the legislation as passed.
At this point in the regulatory process, a regulator is to address concerns that are brought up regardless of how many people voice each concern. It doesn't really matter whether five people or five hundred bring up a concern: it's still just one concern.
Sure, it's a bad thing that peoples names were false attached to these comments. It bears some investigation. But let's be clear that since this isn't voting, it's not like the scheme will have screwed up a vote. The outcome will be just as legitimate even if everyone submitting duplicate comments--honest or not--wasted federal resources in deduplicating them.
Another thing the Simpsons predicted...