Repetitive, Fabricated Filings Seen Weakening Net Neutrality Proceeding; Improvements Urged
Form letters and fraudulent filings undermined the public comment process in the FCC net neutrality rulemaking (see 1708030054), said Jack Karsten and Darrell West, research analyst and vice president at the Center for Technology and Innovation. "Agencies do not base…
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their decisions on the number of comments arguing for or against a rule," they blogged for the Brookings Institution Thursday. A "high number of false comments may lead agencies to discount public comments altogether. The same digital tools that empower concerned citizens also enables individuals and groups to flood the system with fabricated comments." They suggested requiring "commenters to verify their identity, or at least verify they are human." Another approach would automate the search for spam comments, "pitting spam bots against spam filters," they wrote. "However, the filtering out of fraudulent comments should [not be] used [to] discourage authentic commentary from interested individuals. Creating a universal, easy-to-use interface for public comments would increase participation without diminishing the quality of comments."