News that the Federal Communications Commission would not disregard hundreds of thousands of identical anti-net neutrality comments made by bots is not sitting well with some of the people whose names were stolen and attached to those comments. They are in fact open internet supporters, and are demanding that those comments be tossed.
In a letter to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai signed by 14 people, the group offers support for the principle of net neutrality, after the fake comments under their names called for the end of those rules.
They also called for the comments to be removed.
“We are disturbed by reports that indicate you have no plans to remove these fraudulent comments from the public docket,” the group wrote in a letter posted on Fight for the Future's web site.
“Whoever is behind this stole our names and addresses, publicly exposed our private information without our permission, and used our identities to file a political statement we did not sign onto.”
Here's what they're demanding in that letter:
- Notify all who have been impacted by this attack
- Remove all of the fraudulent comments, including the ones made in our names, from the public docket immediately
- Publicly disclose any information the FCC may have about the group or person behind the 450,000+ fake comments
- Call for an investigation by the appropriate authorities into possible violations of 18 U.S.C. § 1001 (“making false statements”) and other relevant laws.
At the least—the very, very least—they should do the first two of those demands. In this of all issues—the open internet—they should be operating with complete transparency, not to mention technological competence. That seems to be asking too much of Trump's FCC under Ajit Pai.
We'll keep fighting. Sign the petition to send the FCC and our elected officials in D.C. a clear message that we won’t stand by and let them kill net neutrality.
