In the aftermath of a 2017 report that thousands of fraudulent comments were posted on the public comment section of regulatory dockets for five federal agencies, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is reportedly taking action to overhaul its online system for posting public comments.
According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has asked that the U.S. Congress authorize him to shift a portion of the FCC’s budget “to rebuild and reengineer” the electronic comment system, so as to reduce the likelihood of future abuses. Pai noted his request in a letter to two U.S. Senators, Pat Toomey (R-PA) and Jeff Merkley (D-OR), who had previously written to Pai to report that their names had been improperly associated with comments posted in connection with the FCC’s proposed repeal of the so-called net neutrality rules.
Pai’s action comes in response to an investigation conducted by the Journal in 2017 that uncovered the widespread practice of fraudulent postings on the electronic comment system of several federal agencies. In the case of the FCC alone, an estimated 7.5 million identical comments were posted by 50,000 individuals whose addresses could not be verified.
The Journal notes that it is a felony to knowingly make false, fictitious or fraudulent statements to a U.S. federal agency.
Read the complete text of the Wall Street Journal article detailing Pai’s plans.
Read the original Journal article detailing the results of its investigation into fake comments.
