Calling on the FCC to investigate and delete the "dishonest and deceitful" messages made in their name, the regular citizens said officials cannot afford to ignore the flood of fake comments apparently designed "to manufacture false support for your plan to repeal net neutrality protections."

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The FCC has proposed to roll back net neutrality regulations put in place during the Obama administration. Those rules were implemented to keep Internet providers from abusing their strategic position between customers and the rest of the Web. Supporters of the rules say they are needed to shield consumers from potentially anticompetitive behavior, while opponents argue the rules are unnecessarily restrictive and block ISPs from finding new ways to make money.

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The fight has grown increasingly political. People on each side have accused the other of using robots to flood the docket with automated comments, using hateful language or, in some cases, pretending to be other people. The FCC's comment system also recently crashed after what the agency said was a deliberate denial-of-service attack. Critics of the FCC say the problems plaguing the comment system have undermined the democratic process.

"To see my good name used to present an opinion diametrically opposed to my own view on Net Neutrality makes me feel sad and violated," Joel Mullaney, one of the people who signed Thursday's letter, told Fight for the Future — the activist group that organized the letter. "Whoever did this violated one of the most basic norms of our democratic society, that each of us have our own voice, and I am eager to know from what source the FCC obtained this falsified affidavit. I have been slandered."

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Responding to questions about the comment system last week, officials referred reporters to the agency's information technology and media relations teams. On Thursday, the FCC declined to comment but referred reporters to Pai's previous statements.

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