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Close to 20% of all pro-net neutrality comments filed were made in which either the filers’ names were being submitted with the email address of an obviously different person or in which the same email address was used to file multiple comments – in some cases thousands of times.
“The full breadth of the fake comments at this point is not known. But based on an initial forensic analysis, we believe it is massive,” NLPC President Peter Flaherty said. “Indeed, based on our initial read, almost one fifth (465,322) of all pro-net neutrality comments submitted into the docket appear to have come from email addresses that have made multiple submissions, sometimes with duplicates in the thousands. At least 100,000 more comments from an Electronic Frontier Foundation Net Neutrality comment campaign appear to have been generated using both fake email and fake physical addresses and perhaps even fake names.”
The organization also suspected the potentially feigned support for net neutrality by browsing through 100,148 comments and deciphering that they all contained a suspiciously large portion of language that was used in the EFF’s submission platform. The EFF, though, offers “rotating variables” meaning there are options for certain words to make the comments look different.
“The FCC should [reject/throw out] Chairman Ajit Pai’s [plan/proposal] to [give/hand] [the/the government-subsidized] [telecom giants/ISP monopolies]…” reads the EFF’s template for public comment, according to the NLPC’s screenshot. The submission platform also gives options for which corporations to call out and in what order.
The NLPC alleges that the EFF subtly changes its rotating variables once the web page is refreshed.
“Gaming a regulatory rulemaking in this way is highly deceptive and completely undermines the integrity of the public comment process. More troubling, the potential privacy breach of knowingly using other people’s email addresses without their permission to submit comments would be unprecedented,” Flaherty continued. “If our independent forensics analysis confirms that the deception is as extensive as the initial analysis indicates, we will submit our report to Congress and urge them to conduct a full and thorough investigation.”
Op source
As noted in TheDCNF’s original report, fake “anti-net neutrality” comments also made their way on the forum as more than 128,000 identical posts under different names were discovered, according to ZDNet.
originally posted by: rickymouse
The far left want only what they believe to be true on the net. They would definitely restrict opposing opinions if they had their way. They twist and distort things to make things look how they want them to.
The far right does distort things but not as bad as the far left does. Also, the right in general looks at preserving personal rights. Not the far left as most people have been led to believe. I used to believe that the liberals were for truth and personal rights, but after reading many articles I found I was believing a lie.
originally posted by: rickymouse
I used to believe that the liberals were for truth and personal rights, but after reading many articles I found I was believing a lie.
originally posted by: rickymouse
The far left want only what they believe to be true on the net. They would definitely restrict opposing opinions if they had their way. They twist and distort things to make things look how they want them to.
The far right does distort things but not as bad as the far left does. Also, the right in general looks at preserving personal rights. Not the far left as most people have been led to believe. I used to believe that the liberals were for truth and personal rights, but after reading many articles I found I was believing a lie.
originally posted by: Kali74
a reply to: dreamingawake
I love how your post is completely ignored.
If you're implying the opposite of preventing corporate control of the internet itself is totalitarian government regulation, you're wrong.
originally posted by: Wardaddy454
originally posted by: eNumbra
Good.
Letting the corporations dig their greedy claws any further into the internet and it's traffic is a terrible idea.
Meanwhile, we see the other side of the spectrum occurring in Europe and Asia.
originally posted by: Kali74
originally posted by: rickymouse
The far left want only what they believe to be true on the net. They would definitely restrict opposing opinions if they had their way. They twist and distort things to make things look how they want them to.
The far right does distort things but not as bad as the far left does. Also, the right in general looks at preserving personal rights. Not the far left as most people have been led to believe. I used to believe that the liberals were for truth and personal rights, but after reading many articles I found I was believing a lie.
Uh no. We far leftists want the internet exactly as it is right now. Not sectioned off and controlled by corporations.
originally posted by: SaturnFX
originally posted by: rickymouse
I used to believe that the liberals were for truth and personal rights, but after reading many articles I found I was believing a lie.
NN isn't a liberal v conservative thing...at least didn't used to be
It was a wild west v corporatist fight.
Net was developed with tax payer money. .
Net neutrality pros and cons
Pros of net neutrality regulation
•Network neutrality avoids that ISPs charge online services such as XBox Live, Playstation Plus, Skype, and Netflix for "fast lanes". These extra costs for "fast lanes" are problematic because they can make the services more expensive for internet users and also may prevent small companies from the capacity to compete with the big companies who have the budget to reach agreements with ISPs.
•Net neutrality avoids discrimination among users ensuring similar access to information for people of different socio-economic status. Without neutrality, high-speed internet for entertainment could be prioritized over education. And ISPs could change premium fees (“pay-to-play”) to enjoy special access to public libraries, benefiting the richest people.
•Network neutrality helps to promote freedom of choice, as ISPs cannot obstruct or incentivize particular contents or sites over others.
•Anti-blocking and anti-discrimination rules prevent the capacity of ISPs to arbitrary decide to limit access or promote some type of content.The role of ISPs is to only "transport" data to the users that have paid for delivery, and therefore they should not shape content consumption patterns.
•Net neutrality promotes a level playing field for competing companies.
Cons of net neutrality regulation
•Regulation imposing net neutrality would limit new business ideas and concepts and could be considered against free market rules.
•Sponsored content and “pay-to-play” schemes may go against the net neutrality spirit, but they can help companies improve the overall service they offer. Heavier internet users may be charged more. With that extra money ISPs could increase the bandwith for all internet users.
•Thanks to sponsorships some mobile telecom operators may offer free internet access to some contents. This may enable those who don’t have data contracts on their smartphones to surf some areas in the internet for free. Similarly, it would reduce the consumption of other users’ data allotments.
•Regulation for net neutrality may limit the tools of governments and ISPs to fight against online “piracy”. Material infringing copyright laws will be easilty shared using P2P software. ISPs or governments won't be able to block or filter these contents, if net neutrality is fully respeced. Similarly net neutrality rules make more difficult to monitor and control controversial adult content.
•Some defenders of net neutrality question government intervention. For them it should emerge organically or naturally but not imposed through laws.