The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has agreed to take up an investigation into fake comments being filed to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regarding its plan to roll back net neutrality rules.

The GAO’s decision to probe the comments comes after a request from Democratic Reps. Gregory Meeks Gregory Weldon MeeksBottom line Democrats go big on diversity with new House recruits Chamber of Commerce, banking industry groups call on Senate to pass corporate diversity bill MORE (N.Y.), Elijah Cummings Elijah Eugene CummingsBlack GOP candidate accuses Behar of wearing black face in heated interview Overnight Health Care: US won't join global coronavirus vaccine initiative | Federal panel lays out initial priorities for COVID-19 vaccine distribution | NIH panel: 'Insufficient data' to show treatment touted by Trump works House Oversight Democrats to subpoena AbbVie in drug pricing probe MORE (Md.) and Frank Pallone Jr. Frank Joseph PallonePharma execs say FDA will not lower standards for coronavirus vaccine Dem chairmen urge CMS to prevent nursing homes from seizing stimulus payments Federal watchdog finds cybersecurity vulnerabilities in FCC systems MORE (N.J.) asking it review the matter.

“We understand that the FCC’s rulemaking process requires it to address all comments it receives, regardless of who submits them,” the lawmakers wrote in their letter to the GAO in December. “However, we do not believe any outside parties should be permitted to generate any comments to any federal governmental entity using information it knows to be false, such as the identities of those submitting the comments.”

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During the FCC comment-filing period ahead of December's rule change, several studies found that large amounts of net neutrality comments, mostly

were actually filed under fake identities or fraudulently under the identities of people who said they didn’t file comments or who were deceased.

Democratic lawmakers, government officials and advocacy groups have criticized the presence of the fake comments, saying that they unfairly influenced discourse around the net neutrality debate.

Lawmakers and state attorneys general had pressed the FCC to delay its December vote until the fake comments were examined further. The agency declined, saying at the time that such requests were “just evidence that supporters of heavy-handed Internet regulations are becoming more desperate by the day as their effort to defeat Chairman Pai's plan to restore Internet freedom has stalled.”

In the final version of FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s plan to get rid of the rules, the agency said that such public comments “in no way impeded the Commission’s ability to identify or respond to material issues in the record,” stressing that it focused on “substantive legal and public policy questions.”