Carolyn Kaster / AP
The Office of New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a new report that a campaign funded by the broadband industry submitted millions of fake comments supporting the 2017 repeal of net neutrality.
“Americans voices are being drowned out by masses of fake comments and messages being submitted to the government to sway decision-making,” said James. “Instead of actually looking for real responses from the American people, marketing companies are luring vulnerable individuals to their websites with freebies, co-opting their identities and fabricating responses that giant corporations are then using to influence the polices and laws that govern our lives.
A new report by New York Attorney General Letitia James has revealed that the US broadband industry funded millions of fake comments – impersonating real people – to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in 2017, opposing net neutrality. The report, titled “Fake Comments: How U.S. Companies & Partisans Hack Democracy to Undermine Your Voice”, revealed that a non-profit called Broadband for America – made up of senior officials from broadband companies and trade groups – spent $4.2 million on over 8.5 million fake comments.
Net neutrality is the principle that Internet service providers (ISPs) should treat all Internet traffic equally, with no fast lanes, extra charges, or slowing for specific content. Proponents of net neutrality say that it is vital for innovation and freedom of expression, allowing smaller companies to grow and thrive alongside bigger industry players and preventing ISPs from limiting online speech to those who can afford to pay extra.
During the ferocious 2017 battle over the repeal of net neutrality protections, the Federal Communications Commission received a whopping 22 million public comments. But that doesn’t mean 22 million Americans had strong feelings about the issue, according to a new report from New York Attorney General Letitia James.
James’ investigation found that the comments were riddled with fraud. One New Yorker who commented in favor of the appeal turned out to be dead. A single 19-year-old college student apparently filed 7.7 million comments arguing against the repeal. And a broadband industry group spent millions to submit more than 8.5 million fake comments supporting the decision.
Microsoft outlines open RAN vision 07 MAY 2021
In comments filed with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Microsoft shared its vision of open RAN as one element of a cloud-based network architecture, and gave details about its work with mobile network operators.
The comments came in response to a Notice of Inquiry issued by the FCC on the topic of open RAN. Microsoft was one of several respondents from outside the traditional telco space (others included Intel, Arm, IBM, Google, and HPE).
Microsoft’s comments may be of special interest to some because the software giant has made a number of recent acquisitions in the wireless/IoT space. During the second quarter of 2020, Microsoft announced plans to purchase Affirmed Networks, Metaswitch, and CyberX.
It may be the most famous broadside launched by a government official in American history:
Sixty years ago this Sunday, Newton N. Minow invited the television executives gathered in Washington for his first official speech as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission to spend a day watching their own broadcasts. Keep your eyes glued to that set until the station signs off, he said. I can assure you that what you will observe is a vast wasteland.
At that moment, the phrase a vast wasteland became an indelible part of the American political lexicon â not merely because of the power of the words themselves, but because of their fundamental truthfulness.