/ A rusted satellite dish, from days past stands beside an empty home in Frost, WV on Aug. 19, 2020.
This story was originally published by Mountain State Spotlight. Get stories like this delivered to your email inbox once a week; sign up for the free newsletter at
More than a decade ago, West Virginia officials faced a gargantuan problem without enough money to fix it. They earmarked $5 million toward fixing the state’s slow, unreliable internet, then spent years bickering over how to spend it with little progress made on the problem.
But now, they’ll have another chance with a lot more money and much, much higher stakes.
Broadband industry behind millions of fake comments to FCC pushing net neutrality repeal, New York attorney general says
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One 19-year-old in California submitted more than 7.7 million pro-net neutrality comments. The attorney general’s office did not identify the origins of another “distinct group” of more than 1.6 million pro-net neutrality comments, many of which used mailing addresses outside the U.S.
A broadband industry group, called Broadband for America, spent $4.2 million generating more than 8.5 million of the fake FCC comments. Half a million fake letters were also sent to Congress.
The goal of the broadband industry campaign, according to internal documents the attorney general’s office received, was to make it seem like there was “widespread grassroots support” for the repeal of net neutrality that could give the FCC chairman at the time, Ajit Pai, “volume and intellectual cover” for the repeal.
Bloomberg
The Office of the New York Attorney General 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.
The Federal Communications Commission s contentious 2017 repeal undid Obama-era rules that barred internet service providers from slowing or blocking websites and apps or charging companies more for faster speeds to consumers.
The proceeding generated a record-breaking number of comments more than 22 million. The attorney general s report found that nearly 18 million of those were fake comments, and the broadband industry group, called Broadband for America, spent $4.2 million generating more than 8.5 million of the fake FCC comments. Half a million fake letters were also sent to Congress.
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