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 "Pai noted in a court filing that most of the comments were in favor of net neutrality, which the FCC repealed last December," reports Engadget.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.