FCC Chairman Admits Russia Meddled In Net Neutrality Debate (engadget.com)

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has admitted that around 500,000 comments submitted during the net neutrality public comment period were linked to Russia email addresses. "Pai noted in a court filing that most of the comments were in favor of net neutrality, which the FCC repealed last December," reports Engadget. From the report: The New York Times and BuzzFeed News have filed freedom of information requests in the hopes of uncovering the extent of fraudulent comments and Russian influence in the net neutrality process. Pai's filing was part of an FCC memorandum that addressed the requests, and the agency has argued that releasing the data could expose the U.S. to cyberattacks.

Pai's concession underscores how Russia's influence on U.S. democracy extends beyond headline-grabbing election interference and fake news peddling, and it also reflects the litany of issues the FCC faced during the net neutrality comment period. Over half of the almost 22 million comments came from phony, temporary or duplicate email addresses, according to a study, and reportedly only 17.4 percent of the comments were unique.

Comments

Re:Take that in Slashdot, you are siding with Russ

[Jane Q. Public]

Just in case that needs clarifying:

Of the approximately 3,828,000 legitimate email comments received by FCC:

3,816,516 were in favor of Net Neutrality.

Only 11,484 were not.

Obviously the numbers are subject to rounding error. But rounding error is pretty irrelevant when the majority is that overwhelming.

I don't think lawsuits will work

[rsilvergun]

the courts have been packed with pro-corporate judges for 30,40 years. They'll throw in with the side of property on this one. The EPA stuff is a bit easier to grasp since the ones that have been challenged have pretty immediate implications for the water table. NN doesn't really affect them. Worst case it doubles their cable bill but that'll be more than offset by the stock they own in AT&T and Comcast going up in value.

Re:You DO realize he's going to prison for colludi

[bobbied]

Trump is about to face charges for ... (snip)

Assuming you are talking about Trump Sr, you do realize that this is totally wrong. You CANNOT charge a sitting president with ANYTHING. DOJ regulations forbid this.

So... If Trump Sr is about to face charges, real ones, he's going to either need to be impeached and convicted or resign office first. I don't think either of these situations is remotely possible, both politically and by Trump's personality traits. The Republicans in the Senate won't vote to convict Trump in sufficient numbers to get a conviction and Trump doesn't seem likely to resign, even under such pressure.

Maybe, if he loses in 2020, you can charge him at 12:01 PM on January 20, 2021, or should he win reelection you will be waiting until January 20, 2025.

So no, Trump isn't "about to face charges" (real criminal charges that is) regardless of what you believe he did. By law Mueller simply cannot bring criminal charges on a sitting president. Even if he did, the charges would be quashed by the courts, or at the very least, deferred until Trump left office. There would be no arrest, no perp walk nothing. And Mueller would be rightly chastised for doing it.