Slashdot Mirror
The New York Times Sues FCC For Net Neutrality Records (bna.com)
The New York Times Company on Thursday filed a lawsuit against the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) concerning records the newspaper alleges may shed light on possible Russian participation in a public comment period before the commission rolled back Obama-era net neutrality rules. Bloomberg reports: The plaintiffs, including Times reporter Nicholas Confessore and investigations editor Gabriel Dance, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Sept. 20 under the Freedom of Information Act, seeking to compel the commission to hand over data. "The request at issue in this litigation involves records that will shed light on the extent to which Russian nationals and agents of the Russian government have interfered with the agency notice-and-comment process about a topic of extensive public interest: the government's decision to abandon 'net neutrality,'" the plaintiffs alleged.
What is the connection between Russians and network neutrality? I get that there were fake comments, but I thought they were forged by telecom companies or organizations that were fooled by telecom companies. Is the Russian angle just to get them release the records?
One way to gain economic dominance is to convince the other side to blunder into an economically harmful decision.
They don't. They just want to start shit and disrupt civil society, and posting fake shit online is cheap and easy to do.
It's like asking why the Anonymous Coward does what he does on Slashdot. There is no why. It's just vandalism for the information age. Terrorism for those too cowardly to actually risk anything.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Ajit Pai was determined to roll back net neutrality regardless of any outside influence (including comments from actual citizens). It was a done deal once he got appointed FCC commission chair.
The Russians don't necessarily care about net neutrality, but they do appear to be actively stirring wasps nest to cause discontent and conflict among the US population. The more unrest within the US internally, the less Americans worry about what Russia is doing on the other side of the world.