NY AG's office says fake comments, including 8.5M funded by largest US ISPs, accounted for ~18M of the 22M+ net neutrality comments received by the FCC in 2017

The New York attorney general's office released a new report detailing the effort — The New York attorney general's office issued …

The Verge 2021-05-07 Makena Kelly

Context & Ripple Effects

The report caps an investigation that began with the FCC declining New York's requests for records and logs, while the state sought a delay to the 2017 vote over allegedly stolen identities. It shifts the dispute from suspected manipulation of a public docket to a quantified account of who financed a large share of it.

The inquiry had already expanded to subpoenas for 14 trade groups, businesses, and advocacy organizations. That makes the funding attribution consequential not only for the FCC record, but for the organizations involved in the campaign behind it.

First-order effects

The FCC's 2017 net-neutrality comment docket is further undermined as evidence of public sentiment: New York attributes roughly 18 million submissions to fake activity, including 8.5 million funded by the largest U.S. ISPs.
The report puts the largest U.S. ISPs' financing role and the conduct of the groups under investigation into a documented state enforcement record.

Second-order effects

Organizations swept into the subpoena investigation face a clearer factual basis for scrutiny, as the report connects the false-comment volume to identified funding rather than treating it solely as an anonymous online abuse problem.
The FCC faces renewed pressure to defend how it handled a comment process that New York had earlier said was impaired while the agency withheld requested investigative records.

Third-order effects

The later resolution in which three companies agreed to penalties over falsified comments suggests that state investigations can impose accountability when a federal rulemaking docket is vulnerable to coordinated deception.
Public-comment systems are becoming an enforcement and provenance issue: the durability of agency consultation increasingly depends on whether regulators can distinguish authentic participation from funded mass submissions.

The trend: Regulatory rulemakings are treating the origin and financing of online public comments as material to both enforcement and the legitimacy of the underlying record.

Discussion

@newyorkstateag Ny Ag on x
After a multi-year investigation, we found the nation's largest broadband companies funded a secret campaign to influence the FCC's repeal of net neutrality rules — resulting in millions of fake public comments impersonating Americans. These illegal schemes are unacceptable.
@evan_greer Evan Greer on x
Back in 2017, @fightfortheftr started noticing suspicious comments flooding the FCC docket. All of them opposed #NetNeutrality. We published a blog post about it and some journos started investigating. Today the NY AG announced they have proof this fraud was funded by the ISPs. h…
@bostonjoan @bostonjoan on x
For years! I have been salty about the fake public comments on the net neutrality issue and we finally have our answers. Media manipulation on a huge scale here! https://ag.ny.gov/...
@campuscodi Catalin Cimpanu on x
wow... “Through its investigation, the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) found that, in 2017, the nation's largest broadband companies funded a secret campaign to generate millions of comments to the FCC.” https://ag.ny.gov/...
@issielapowsky Issie Lapowsky on x
It also finds that one single 19-year-old college student submitted more than 7 million pro-net neutrality comments under different fake identities. Wild. https://www.protocol.com/...
@issielapowsky Issie Lapowsky on x
Holy Moly. NY AG report finds out of the 22 million net neutrality comments the FCC received in 2017, 18 million were fake. Report alleges a “secret campaign” by the broadband industry, which offered consumers rewards for male enhancement drugs ‼️ https://www.protocol.com/...
@wsj @wsj on x
A little-known influence industry that generates made-up comments and often attaches the names of real people caught up in marketing ploys was highlighted in a report on nearly 18 million fake comments filed with the FCC over its net-neutrality proposal https://trib.al/90gQwD8
@doctorow Cory Doctorow on x
Unsurprisingly - but importantly - the NY AG found that 18 million of the 22 million comments the FCC received were fake, that the fake comments favored the Net Neutrality repeal, AND THAT THE FRAUD WAS A PAID OPERATION ON BEHALF OF TELCOS. https://www.theverge.com/... 8/
@ilyseh Ilyse Hogue on x
Kids who can't get on line for Zoom school. People who can't look on line for jobs. People who can't check internet resources to protect against eviction, access health care, etc...etc...etc...That's what these companies stand for when they pull this sh*t. Thank you AG James. htt…
@dbreunig Drew Breunig on x
Here's the story that anyone who looked at the comments already STRONGLY suspected: https://twitter.com/...
@lhfang Lee Fang on x
MSNBC parent company Comcast and CNN parent company AT&T paid lead generators, which used promises of dick pills and discounted Disney movies, to trick people into signing comments to the Trump administration to repeal net neutrality, NY AG report shows. https://ag.ny.gov/...
@shahidforchange Shahid Buttar on x
Corporate influence infects our system in many different ways, making a mockery of our democracy. https://twitter.com/...
@itsmissmess MissMess on x
Literally, this should kill the debate over #NetNeutrality once and for all. If we can't trust ISPs to not put their thumbs on the scale during the debate, how can we trust them to be neutral without the law? https://twitter.com/...
@democraticags Democratic AGs on x
🚨 In a jaw-dropping new report, NY Dem AG @TishJames has found that more than 18 MILLION of the public comments received by the @FCC re: #NetNeutrality were FAKE... ... and MILLIONS of those were funded by the broadband industry itself. READ MORE ⤵️ https://www.protocol.com/...
@alt_uscis @alt_uscis on x
So no one it going to jails $4 million in penalties for broadband companies is their cafeteria budget for a week https://twitter.com/...
@vice @vice on x
The broadband industry used fake and even dead people to generate bogus support for their unpopular position on net neutrality. https://www.vice.com/...
@roby_bhatt Roby Bhattacharyya on x
This whole thread is an infuriating update on the bizarre net neutrality comment period, for anyone else who paid attention to it amidst *everything else*. https://twitter.com/...
@dbreunig Drew Breunig on x
In an era filled with transparent grifts, this had to have been the most transparent. Not only were the letters comically duplicative and clearly fake, the idea that masses of normal people would write in to *support* net neutrality is laughable. https://www.nytimes.com/...
@amyspitalnick Amy Spitalnick on x
This is so important. For years, the NYAG team & others rang the alarm on this disinformation campaign aimed at gutting #NetNeutrality. (Here's an early NYT article via @nickconfessore: https://www.nytimes.com/...) As the investigation found, big ISPs were behind it the whole tim…
@evan_greer Evan Greer on x
Here's @fightfortheftr's statement: we're calling for criminal charges against the companies and executives that funded this fraudulent disinformation campaign, and an investigation into whether they also funded a paid hacking campaign that targeted us. https://www.fightforthefut…
@doctorow Cory Doctorow on x
Pai left millions of Americans with slow broadband (or no broadband at all) even as the pandemic moved all education, employment, healthcare, and family life online. He is one of history's great monsters. 11/
@baratunde @baratunde on x
I'm shocked SHOCKED. If you care about quality broadband in the US listen to my conversation with Bruce Patterson on next weeks episode of #HowToCitizen https://howtocitizen.com/ https://twitter.com/...
@eringriffith Erin Griffith on x
wow, internet providers spent $4.2 million to create nine million fake comments in opposing net neutrality via @dmccabe https://www.nytimes.com/...
@fightfortheftr @fightfortheftr on x
Internet rights advocacy organization Fight for the Future issued a king-size “I told you so” noting that they had flagged this process at the time and helped bring it to the attention of both government officials and ordinary folks. #NetNeutrality https://techcrunch.com/...
@jenmercieca Jennifer Mercieca on x
dark arts marketing, astroturfing, & sockpuppets. Rich cable companies, poor democracy. https://twitter.com/...
@flyosity Mike Rundle on x
Sounds like each comment should be a separate felony offense under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. https://twitter.com/...
@froomkin Dan Froomkin on x
“nearly every comment and message the broadband industry submitted to the FCC and Congress was fake, signed using the names and addresses of millions of individuals without their knowledge or consent.” https://ag.ny.gov/... https://twitter.com/...
@digiphile Alex Howard on x
Despite promises of transparency, @AjitPai did not ensure the broadband industry's secret astroturfing campaign came to light, nor did @TheJusticeDept: @NewYorkStateAG did. (Federalism FTW.) Is a rulemaking based on fake & fraudulent comments legally binding, @JRosenworcelFCC? ht…
@evan_greer Evan Greer on x
of course, NYAG wouldn't have ever investigated this if @fightfortheftr hadn't helped uncover the original flood of fake comments, and journalists like @dellcam and @kevincollier hadn't kept digging into it. history is important here if we want to keep this from happening again h…
@johnkoetsier John Koetsier on x
There HAS TO be punishment for this >> The biggest US ISPs funded 8.5M fake comments on net neutrality in a massive astroturf campaign ... plus “more than half a million fake letters to Congress” https://www.theverge.com/...
@kendraserra Kendra Albert on x
The entire report on comment fraud from the NY AG is full of one bombshell after another, but this section where a contractor explicitly says that they only need to commit enough fraud to keep pro-net neutrality groups like @publicknowledge from finding out is, uh, something. htt…
@rakeshlobster Rakesh Agrawal on x
$4.4M in penalties. Hurt less than a paper cut. https://twitter.com/...
@gregpinelo Greg Pinelo on x
If you want to know how corporate America has used astroturf organizing to game the system in Washington, this investigation by NY AG Tish James is a must read. The press release: https://ag.ny.gov/... The full report: https://ag.ny.gov/...
@stevemk14ebr Steve Eckels on x
As someone who tried to comment on their website and protested publicly, this was so so so so so obvious.The entire comment section was spam and it was infuriating seeing no one care about such obviously exploitative action.Ajit Pai just lying constantly about consumer wants too …
@robpegoraro Rob Pegoraro on x
Astroturf as a service: Broadband for America wanted to flood the FCC with anti-net-neutrality comments, it paid a lobbying firm to make that happen—and then the lead-gen firms hired by the lobbyists filed 8.5+ million fake comments in real people's names. https://ag.ny.gov/...
@can @can on x
Veep was a documentary? https://t.co/CE3VwwrVdX
@josephfcox Joseph Cox on x
New: an investigation by New York's attorney general has confirmed that Big Telecom paid to flood the net neutrality debate with millions of fake comments. Fluent, Opt-Intelligence, and React2Media are the companies, have to pay $4.4m https://www.vice.com/...
@karlbode Karl Bode on x
NEW from me: NY AG Letitia James today announced $4.4 million in penalties against 3 companies hired by the broadband industry to generate fake public support for the FCC's controversial 2017 #netneutrality repeal: https://t.co/u7Il5MNDSW
@jdtabish Josh Tabish on x
This is a really big deal. Big Telecom companies were caught funding an astroturf campaign to try and kill #NetNeutrality by flooding the FCC with fake comments. Glad to see they caught the jerks. https://twitter.com/...
@justinhendrix Justin Hendrix on x
'The OAG found that millions of fake comments were submitted through a secret campaign, funded by the country's largest broadband co's, to manufacture support for repeal of net neutrality rules... millions more were submitted by a 19yo college student using made-up identities...'…
@joycecaroloates Joyce Carol Oates on x
“of 22 million emails, 18 million were fake...” https://twitter.com/...
@alexandernl Alexander Klpping on x
This story is bonkers https://twitter.com/...
@slickrockweb Eric Ellason on x
Did any of us doubt this sh$t was occurring? It always looked like a totally astroturfed campaign! Fake comments swamping the FCC to support getting rid of #netneutrality .. even though it overwhelmingly popular among Americans to keep in place. https://twitter.com/...
@issielapowsky Issie Lapowsky on x
Every line of this is more flabbergasting than the last: One of the lead generators working with the broadband industry used info obtained from a data breach to submit comments in unwitting consumers' names. https://www.protocol.com/...
@ericgarland Eric Garland on x
@issielapowsky Dear. Lord. You're not exaggerating - this is the most insane report possible, and it *does* get worse sentence over sentence. Impressive! Yo peeps, read the NY AG's report here! https://ag.ny.gov/...

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