FCC Staffers Blast Agency For Ignoring Identity Theft, Fraud FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel isn't particularly impressed by the agency's refusal to police identity theft and fraud during its net neutrality proceeding. As noted last week, the FCC is refusing to cooperate whatsoever with law enforcement investigations into who filled the FCC net neutrality proceeding with millions of bogus comments. More than a million of the record 22 million comments were part of a coordinated campaign to drive bogus support for the agency's plans using bots and even dead people.

Given the public comment period is the only time consumers get to voice their concerns, Rosenworcel said the agency's decision to turn a blind eye to the problem undermines democratic and agency processes. "To put it simply, there is evidence in the FCC’s files that fraud has occurred, and the FCC is telling law enforcement and victims of identity theft that it is not going to help," Rosenworcel said in a statement to Gizmodo. "Moreover, the FCC refuses to look into how nearly half a million comments came from Russian sources. Failure to investigate this corrupted record undermines our process for seeking public input in the digital age." Critics have charged that the FCC failed to investigate or hinder bogus comments because the fraud undermined trust in the validity of the comment process, helping to downplay and discredit the massive genuine opposition to the FCC's plan. If the fake comments were the work of an ISP-tied think tank or policy organization (such activity is certainly historically within their wheelhouse), the industry-cozy FCC also likely has a vested interest in not aiding anybody trying to document such a connection. Pai's staff may believe they're being clever by ignoring the problem, but it could come back to bite them in the inevitable lawsuits that will be filed against the agency in the new year. Under the Administrative Procedures Act, the FCC is required to solicit and consider relevant comments from the public whenever issuing what’s called a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM). But they're also required to avoid passing "arbitrary and capricious" policy that isn't supported by a dramatic change in the industry. As such, legal justification for the repeal could prove tricky. With countless groups now trying to track down the origins of the fraudulent support ahead of the court battle, and the FCC in possession of API data and server logs that could help that effort along, expect this story to stick around in the new year. With countless groups now trying to track down the origins of the fraudulent support ahead of the court battle, and the FCC in possession of API data and server logs that could help that effort along, expect this story to stick around in the new year.







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tyspeed29

Premium Member

join:2001-01-04

Simi Valley, CA 10 recommendations tyspeed29 Premium Member Time for congress to step in (what do we pay your salaries for) Same bs, congressional investigators need to step in and not take no for an answer, we the people want justice, want this idiot fired net neutrality restored.