New York AG: As many as 2 million net neutrality comments are fake

As many as 2 million net neutrality comments filed to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) were fake, according to the New York Attorney General’s office.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman (D) slammed the FCC on Wednesday over the agency’s decision to reject his previous request for information about comments filed about net neutrality and to delay the vote amid the fake comments.

{mosads}“As we’ve told the FCC: moving forward with this vote would make a mockery of our public comment process and reward those who perpetrated this fraud to advance their own hidden agenda,” Schneiderman said. “The FCC must postpone this vote and work with us to get to the bottom of what happened.”

In a letter to the agency, Schneiderman attacked the FCC’s response for deciding to continue with the vote to scrap net neutrality rules on Thursday, arguing that the agency’s is undermining its desire to protect its “integrity” by “ignoring clear evidence that two million of the comments it received stole Americans’ identities.”

According to the New York attorney general’s analysis, many fake comments used the names and identities of Americans, including in some cases deceased individuals.

“None of the assertions in your letter justify the FCC’s refusal to share evidence of who committed these illegal acts,” Schneiderman said.

Despite Democratic FCC Commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Jessica Rosenworcel agreeing with Schneiderman on the matter, the Republican majority agency has dug its heels into the matter.

“The vote will proceed as scheduled on December 14,” an FCC spokesperson said earlier in the month after Schneiderman and others called for a delay. “This is just evidence that supporters of heavy-handed Internet regulations are becoming more desperate by the day as their effort to defeat Chairman Pai’s plan to restore Internet freedom has stalled.”