US Senators Ask FCC To Investigate Millions of Fake Net Neutrality Comments on FCC Website
Published on May 22, 2018
- Two US senators have requested the FCC to look into millions of fake net neutrality comments on the FCC website.
- Senators Jeff Merkley and Pat Toomey of opposing parties sent a letter to FCC chairman Ajit Pai, claiming that their identities were misused to post comments on the FCC website.
- An investigation has already begun to identify the source of the fake comments and measures are being taken to prevent such instances of identity theft in the future.
Senators Jeff Merkley and Pat Toomey addressed FCC chairman Ajit Pai claiming that their identities were stolen and used to post fake comments on the FCC website. Millions of fake comments about net neutrality were found on the FCC website. The comments consisted of viewpoints that do not align with the FCC’s net neutrality proposals. The FCC has been asked to identify the source of the fake comments and also take steps to ensure such incidents do not happen in the future.
The senators put aside their differences and came together to ask the FCC to disclose the number of fake comments that have been posted on the FCC website. The letter from the senators requested the FCC to reveal how the entity was going to work with the Department of Justice to identify if any identity theft laws were broken.
Image Courtesy of O'Reily Media
The FCC had already taken measures against fake comments by working with the Attorney General’s Office when they started investigating the incident. After months of investigation, it was revealed that over 2 million American citizens’ identities were used to post fake comments on the FCC website. The senators have suggested the FCC identify if the comments were posted by bots, and to take measures to prevent such incidents in the future by enabling Captchas on the website.
Senator Toomey explained that the FCC needs to prevent the misuse of personal information by taking measures not to let such incidents repeat in the future. The Government Accountability Office agreed to investigate the identity theft after pleas from the Congress. The entity has decided to investigate the matter even if the FCC decides to not respond to the senators’ requests.
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