FCC Needs to Fix ECFS Woes, FFTF Says; NLPC Sees More Faked Title II Comments
The FCC needs to address problems with the electronic comments filing system (ECFS) before going any further on its net neutrality proceeding "or it will be clear that this is a rogue agency" beholden to large telcos, Fight for the…
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Future (FFTF) said in a statement Monday. It cited reports that the FCC claimed ECFS was "hacked" in 2014 despite a lack of evidence it was the subject it was a cyberattack. That raises questions about the veracity of FCC claims that its ECFS was subject of a directed denial-of-service attack earlier this year (see 1705080042), FFTF said. The FCC didn't comment. Meanwhile, the National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC) in a news release Tuesday said more than 5.8 million fake pro-net neutrality comments were filed with the FCC between July 17 and Aug. 4. It said the deluge came from fake email domains and U.S. address-generator programs, often with the same comments being submitted hundreds of times by filers under the same name but coming from different false email and physical U.S. addresses. It said the comments all use the same language -- "I am in favor of strong net neutrality under Title II of the Communications Act. Sincerely." A spot check of some of the comments found every address was invalid, NLPC said. It said Congress should investigate obviously fake comments submitted by pro- and anti-net neutrality advocates. NLPC has done multiple analyses it says point to fraudulent net neutrality comments (see 1706070017 and 1705310019).