Massive Scheme Corrupts FCC Plan to End Net Neutrality: NY AG

As the Federal Communications Commission moves to dismantle the net neutrality regulations that proponents support to ensure a free and open internet, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman released an open letter alleging a "massive scheme" to corrupt the FCC’s notice and comment process through the misuse of enormous numbers of real New Yorkers’ and other Americans’ identities.

The scheme is under investigation by the Attorney General’s office; however, to date, the FCC has refused to provide the office with information that is critical to the investigation, Schneiderman said in the letter Tuesday.

“Hundreds of thousands of Americans likely were victimized during the FCC's public comment process on net neutrality. That’s akin to identity theft, and it happened on a massive scale,” he wrote in his open letter. “I encourage the FCC to reconsider its refusal to assist in my office’s law enforcement investigation to identify and hold accountable those who illegally misused so many New Yorkers’ identities to corrupt the public comment process."

According to the AG, in May 2017, researchers and reporters discovered that the FCC’s public comment process was being corrupted by the submission of enormous numbers of fake comments concerning the possible repeal of net neutrality rules. The Attorney General’s office analyzed the fake comments and found that tens of thousands of New Yorkers – and hundreds of thousands of Americans – may have had their identities misused. While some of these fake comments used made up names and addresses, many misused the real names and addresses of actual people as part of the effort to undermine the integrity of the comment process.

It begins:

Dear FCC Chairman Ajit Pai:
Recent press reports suggest that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), under your leadership, soon will release rules to dismantle your agency’s existing “net neutrality” protections under Title II of the Communications Act, which shield the public from anti-consumer behaviors of the giant cable companies that provide high-speed internet to most people. In today’s digital age, the rules that govern the operation and delivery of internet service to hundreds of millions of Americans are critical to the economic and social well-being of the nation. Yet the process the FCC has employed to consider potentially sweeping alterations to current net neutrality rules has been corrupted by the fraudulent use of Americans’ identities — and the FCC has been unwilling to assist my office in our efforts to investigate this unlawful activity.

The Attorney General's office reached out for assistance to multiple top FCC officials, including Chairman Pai, three successive acting FCC General Counsels, and the FCC's Inspector General, but has received no substantive response to its investigative requests, he said.

"In an era where foreign governments have indisputably tried to use the internet and social media to influence our elections, federal and state governments should be working together to ensure that malevolent actors cannot subvert our administrative agencies’ decision-making processes," he wrote.

Read the Attorney General's full open letter here.

PHOTO: New York Attorney Eric Schneiderman at a press conference/ NY AG's Office