New York: Fear of foreign interference in US domestic issues surfaced once again last week when the New York State Attorney-General suggested massive identity theft had corrupted the decision making process on so-called "net neutrality".

Eric Schneiderman, the top law enforcement official in New York state, revealed a six-month investigation by his office had discovered hundreds of thousands of people across New York, California, Georgia, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas had their identities appropriated and misused to make public submissions to a Federal Communications Commission inquiry.

The FCC is a government agency charged with regulating communications and media in the US. It had called for public comments on a controversial plan by the agency's chairman Ajit Pai to reverse net neutrality rules, which were established under the Obama administration in 2015.

Net neutrality is the concept that all content on the internet is equal. The idea is that the internet is a public utility and that anyone, from consumers to amateur bloggers and entrepreneurs, has the same access to the web, at the same speed, as tech giants Google and Facebook.