Comcast Sics Its Legal Goons on Net Neutrality Advocates
Source: Gizmodo
A couple of weeks ago, it was discovered that a significant number of anti-net neutrality comments on the FCC’s website were being fraudulently attributed to real people. The pro-net neutrality advocacy group Fight for the Future proceeded to set up a website to raise awareness of the problem and collect more evidence of the obvious astroturfing going on. Today, the group revealed that the most hated company in America had sent them a cease and desist letter.
Comcastroturf.com explains to the public that “someone has submitted nearly half a million anti-net neutrality comments to the FCC, many of which appear to be completely fake — using stolen names and addresses,” and gives anyone an opportunity to check if their name is being used without their knowledge. Today, Fight for the Future released a statement to announce that Comcast’s attorneys had sent them a cease and desist order that insists the group “take all steps necessary to see that the Domain Name [Comcastroturf.com] is assigned to Comcast.”
The full shady ordeal going on with the FCC’s comment section is complicated, but it’s generally understood that botnets are being used to make it appear that the public is in favor of the FCC’s proposal to end Title II protections of net neutrality. The FCC announced that it would honor the fake comments in its review process and it reopened its temporarily closed system to take in more public opinion until August 16th. With Comcastroturf, Fight for the Future asks telecoms to join them in the fight to remove these fraudulent comments from consideration. From the site:
Cont’d.
LINK:
http://gizmodo.com/comcast-sicks-its-legal-goons-on-net-neutrality-advocat-1795490235