Tag Archives: Net Neutrality

FCC To Vote To Restore Net Neutrality Rules, Reversing Trump



The U.S. Federal Communications Commission will vote to reinstate landmark net neutrality rules and assume new regulatory oversight of broadband internet that was rescinded under former President Donald Trump, the agency’s chair said.

According to Reuters, the FCC told advocates on Tuesday of the plan to vote on the final rule at its April 25 meeting. The commission voted 3-2 in October on the proposal to reinstate open internet rules and adopted in 2015 and re-establish the commission’s authority over broadband internet.

Net neutrality refers to the principle that internet providers should enable access to all content and applications regardless of the source, and without favoring or blocking particular products or websites.

FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel confirmed the planned commission vote in an interview with Reuters. “The pandemic made it clear that broadband is an essential service, that every one of us – no matter who we are or where we live – needs it to have a fair shot at success in the digital age”

Engadget reported that the Federal Communications Commission (FTC) plans to vote to restore net neutrality later this month. With Democrats finally holding an FCC majority in the final year of President Biden’s first term, the agency can fulfill a 2021 executive order from the President and bring back the Obama-era rules that the Trump administration’s FCC gutted in 2027.

The FCC plans to hold the vote during a meeting on April 25. Net neutrality treats broadband services as an essential resource under Title II of the Communications Act, giving the FCC greater authority to regulate the industry. It lest the agency prevent ISPs from anti-consumer behavior like unfair pricing, blocking or throttling content and providing pay-to-pay “fast lanes” to internet access.

Democrats had to wait three years to enact Biden’s 2021 executive order to reinstate the net neutrality rules passed in 2015 by President Obama’s FTC. The confirmation process of Biden FCC nominee Gigi Sohn for telecommunications regulator played no small part. She withdrew her nomination in March 2023 following what she called “unrelenting, dishonest and cruel attacks.”

ArsTechnica also reported that the Federal Communications Commission has scheduled an April 25 vote to restore net neutrality rules similar to the ones it introduced during the Obama era and repealed under former President Trump.

“After the prior administration abdicated authority over broadband services, the FCC has been handcuffed from acting to fully secure broadband networks, protect consumer data, and ensure the Internet remains fast, open, and fair,” FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenwrocel said today. “A return to the FCC’s overwhelmingly popular and court-approved standard of net neutrality will allow the agency to serve once again as a strong consumer advocate of an open internet.”

According to ArsTechnica, while there hasn’t been a national standard since then-Chairman Ajit Pai led a repeal in 2017, Internet service providers still have to follow the net neutrality rules because California and other states impose their own similar regulations.

In my opinion, the FCC’s decision to vote for net neutrality is an excellent idea. Anything that makes it easier for people to use the internet (ideally, without having to pay to look at a website that blocks content) will make people less frustrated when searching for news.


Three Companies To Pay $615,000 Over Faked Net Neutrality Comments



Three companies accused of falsifying millions of public comments to support the contentious 2017 repeal of net neutrality rules nave agreed to pay $615,000 in penalties to New York and other states, New York’s attorney general said Wednesday, The Associated Press reported.

New York Attorney General Letitia James posted a press release on her official website titled: “Attorney General James Secures $615,000 from Companies that Supplied Fake Comments to Influence FCC’s Repeal of Net Neutrality Rules”. The press release was posted on May 10, 2023.

New York Attorney General Letitia James today secured $615,000 from three companies, LCX, Lead ID, and Ifficient, that supplied millions of fake public comments to influence a 2017 proceeding by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to repeal net neutrality rules. Net neutrality prohibits broadband providers from blocking, slowing down, or charging companies to prioritize certain content on the internet.

An investigation by the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) found that the fake comments used the identities of millions of consumers, including thousands of New Yorkers, without their knowledge or consent. Collectively, the three companies have agreed to pay $615,000 in penalties and disgorgement. This is the second series of agreements secured by Attorney General James with companies that supplied fake comments to the FCC…

…Today’s agreements are the result of an investigation by OAG that uncovered widespread fraud and abusive practices surrounding efforts to sway the FCC in the agency’s 2017 net neutrality rule making proceeding. As detailed by a report by OAG, the nation’s largest broadband companies funded a secret campaign to generate millions of comments to the FCC in 2017. These comments provided “cover” for the FCC to repeal net neutrality rules.

To help generate these comments, the broadband industry engaged commercial lead generators that used advertisements and prizes, like gift cards and sweepstakes entries, to encourage consumers to join the campaign. However, nearly every lead generator that was hired to enroll consumers in the campaign instead simply fabricated consumers’ responses. As a result, more than 8.5 million fake comments that impersonated real people were submitted to the FCC, and more than half a million fake letters were sent to Congress.

The press release also stated that LCX and its principals will pay $400,000 in penalties and disgorgement to New York and $100,000 to the San Diego District Attorney’s Office. Lead ID and its principal will pay $30,000 in penalties and disgorgement to New York. Ifficient will pay $63,750 in penalties and disgorgement to New York, and $21,250 to Colorado.

Engadget reported that the fines come after a 2021 Attorney General report that found over 18 million of the 22 million comments on net neutrality were fake. While there were signs of trouble at the time, the FCC under then-chairman Ajit Pai fought attempts to investigate and address the spam.

I remember feeling like something was off back in 2017, and was very confused about why so many Americans wanted to remove net neutrality and the protections it provides. Attorney General James has now made it clear that the entire scheme was fraudulent.


FCC Net Neutrality Rollback Filled with Fake Comments



New York Attorney General Letitia James issued a report based on an investigation into the 2017 net neutrality rollback. It revealed that 18 million fake comments were filed with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The full report included the following information:

…In the course of the investigation, the OAG obtained and analyzed tens of thousands of internal emails, planning documents, bank records, invoices, and data comprising of hundreds of millions of records. Our investigation confirmed that many contemporaneous reports of fraud that dogged that rulemaking process. The OAG found that millions of fake comments were submitted through a secret campaign, funded by the country’s broadband companies, to manufacture support for the repeal of existing net neutrality rules using leads generators….

The report found millions more fake comments were submitted by a 19-year-old college student who used automated software to create fake identities. Those fake identities were in favor of net neutrality.

The broadband companies used commercial lead generators that used prizes – like gift cards and sweepstakes entries – to lure consumers to their websites and to join the campaign. Nearly every lead generator that was hired for the campaign “fabricated consumers’ responses.” Those fake responses were against the Obama-era net neutrality rules.

At the time the FCC was seeking comments about the rollback of Obama-era net neutrality rules, reporters noticed that hundreds of thousands of the comments shared identical language. When contacted by reporters, individuals said they never signed it, or never heard of net neutrality. Some who supposedly signed it had died before the comment was signed.

Personally, I think the broadband companies who hired the lead generators should be held accountable for the fraud they helped perpetrate. It is absolutely disgusting to see the lengths they went to in order to thwart the will of the people.


Mozilla Asks FCC to Reinstate Net Neutrality



Mozilla, along with ADT, Dropbox, Eventbrite, Reddit, Vimeo, and Wikimedia, sent a letter to the FCC in which they asked the agency to reinstate net neutrality in the United States as a matter of urgency.

The letter was sent to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, who was selected by President Joe Biden to run the Federal Communications Commission. She was already on the Commission, and is currently Acting Charwoman of the FCC.

In January of 2020, Ajit Pai stepped down from the FCC. He was the one who oversaw the rollback of net neutrality during the Trump administration. As such, now seems like a very good time for Mozilla (and others) to push for net neutrality.

Here is a piece from the letter sent to Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel:

We are writing to express our support for the reinstatement of net neutrality protections through Federal Communications Commission (FCC) action. As leading internet-used businesses and organizations, we believe that these fundamental safeguards are critical for preserving the internet as a free and open medium that promotes innovation and spurs economic growth. Net Neutrality enjoys bipartisan support among the American public, and many may need to rely on protections enforced by the FCC as more offices and classrooms continue to shift online settings during the pandemic. By using its authority to restore net neutrality at the federal level, the FCC can help protect families and businesses across the country that rely on high-speed broadband access and help spark our recovery.

Mozilla pointed out in their blog post that in California residents will have the benefits of net neutrality safeguards as the result of a recent court decision that will allow California to enforce its own state net neutrality law.

Mozilla made it clear that they believe that internet users nationwide deserve the same ability to control their own online experiences. They also emphasized that there is no reason to further delay the reinstatement of net neutrality once the FCC is in working order.

To me, “working order” could be a referring to the fact that there currently are two Democrats (Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks) and two Republicans (Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington). This could potentially lead to “gridlock” on major decisions. There is one vacant seat, and President Biden has the ability to choose who will fill it.


FCC Must Provide IP Address to Fake Net Neutrality Comments



The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has been ordered to provide the server logs that may provide new insight into the allegations of fraud stemming from the agency’s 2017 net neutrality law, Gizmodo reported. The information in the server logs could potentially force the FCC to roll back its decision to kill net neutrality.

The case is titled: The New York Times Company v. Federal Communications Commission. It was filed on September 20, 2018, under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The complaint was filed by The New York Times Company, and two of its reporters, Nicholas Confessore and Gabriel Dance.

The beginning part of the complaint is interesting. In it, the plaintiffs note that this litigation “involves records that will shed light on the extent to which Russian nationals and agents of the Russian government have interfered with the agency notice-and-comment process about a topic of extensive public interest: the government’s decision to abandon ‘net neutrality’. Release of the records will help broaden the public’s understanding of the scope of Russian interference in the American democratic system.”

The complaint also notes that “the FCC has thrown up a series of roadblocks, preventing The Times from obtaining the documents.” It also points out that “the FCC responded to The Times attempt to resolve this matter without litigation with protestations that the agency lacked the technical capacity to respond to the request” (among other excuses).

It appears that District Judge Lorna Schofield (a Manhattan federal court judge), wasn’t buying those excuses. Gizmodo reported that the FCC must release the server logs, which may help clarify whether fraudulent activity interfered with the comment period, as well as whether the FCC’s decision-making process is “vulnerable to corruption.”

Judge Schofield also said: “If genuine public comment is drowned out by a fraudulent facsimile, then the notice-and-comment process has failed.”

I expect that once The New York Times gets its hands on the information that it has requested, it won’t be too long until they publish what they found. This could be extremely embarrassing for the FCC, especially if many of the IP addresses that posted a comment connect to people who are not citizens of the United States. If so, perhaps the FCC can be shamed into doing the right thing and restoring net neutrality.


U.S. Appeals Court Won’t Reconsider Net Neutrality



The full U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia decided not to reconsider an October ruling that upheld the repeal of net neutrality rules. The court declined without comment. Personally, I think the court’s lack of explanation as to why they chose to ignore the request from 15 states and several advocacy groups – is cowardly.

According to Reuters, petitions were filed by the Consumer & Communications Industry Association, internet trade group INCOMPAS, and others. Members of Amazon.com, Inc. Microsoft Corp, Facebook Inc., and Google parent Alphabet also filed petitions.

Free Press, an advocacy group, posted a press release about the court’s denial of the request to rehear the courts decision in Mozilla v. FCC. It stated that in October of 2019, the court upheld the FCC’s Net Neutrality repeal and broadband classification order, but reversed the FCC’s in its attempt to preempt all state Net Neutrality laws.

The court remanded the case to the FCC because the agency failed to address how repeals would impact public safety, the Lifeline broadband-subsidy program for low-income people, and broadband providers’ access to public rights of way.

In December, Free Press filed a petition for the rehearing, along with New America’s Open Technology Institute, Public Knowledge, the Center for Democracy and Technology, the Benton Institute for Broadband and Society and the Computer and Communications Industry Association.

Free Press notes that the denial of rehearing that request “starts the clock on potential further appeals.” Parties have at least 90 days to consider seeking Supreme Court review. According to Reuters, Mozilla, who also fought the net neutrality repeal, said it was considering “next steps”.

In short, this isn’t over yet. But, personally, I’m not sure I trust the current Supreme Court to do the right thing and uphold net neutrality. Reuters notes that in April of 2019, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to reinstate net neutrality protections, but the Republican-led Senate refused to consider it.

No matter what political party you prefer, there is one thing we all agree on. No one wants to have their internet throttled. It doesn’t make sense for the courts to go against the will of the American people regarding net neutrality protections.


California’s Net Neutrality Bill is Now a Law



California Governor Jerry Brown signed SB 882. This means that California has enacted the strongest net neutrality protections in the United States. The law will go into effect next year. It is a big win for consumers in California.

As you may have expected, the U.S. Justice Department has decided to sue the state of California, claiming that its net neutrality law is “extreme and illegal” and something about states not being allowed to regulate interstate commerce.

Personally, I don’t think the U.S. Justice Department has a case. California has enacted stronger auto emission standards than many other states – and the auto industry has complied. California is among other states that require health insurance providers to cover the preventative health benefits that are part of the Affordable Care Act – and the health care industries are still in the Marketplace. There’s no good reason why internet providers should be allowed to trump state’s rights.

The other reason I think the U.S. Justice Department doesn’t have a case is because of the shenanigans that happened when the FCC had a comment period about their repeal of net neutrality rules. As many as 2 million fake comments appeared, some of which stole the identities of real Americans. Some people found that their deceased relatives had magically posted anti-net neutrality comments from beyond the grave.

It is illogical to assume that a situation that started off with lies and shenanigans could result in a winning court case.

Image from Pixabay