While nobody has recognized who is contaminating the FCC comment system with the fake post, it should be somewhat apparent who this work benefits. By threatening the legitimacy of the public FCC commentary method the one chance for direct, public discussion on this subject, it’s natural for ISPs and the FCC to downplay the huge public resistance to killing popular net neutrality laws. After all, the most study has shown that once you separate from, bot and other automatic comments from the course, the vast, vast majority of customers oppose what the FCC and Trump administration is up to.
Attempts to dig underground into this story haven’t gone well. Freelance writer Jason Prechtel filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) appeal on June 4 asking the FCC for data on the false comments, the API keys employed, and how the FCC has operated to address the problem. But while the FCC approved the FOIA request, it turned up giving Prechtel the diversion throughout the summer starting on June 14 that it would be stretching the deadline for returning to his request from July 3 to July 18 before finally choosing to ignore his appeal altogether.
As a consequence, Prechtel has filed a lawsuit upon the FCC, saying the agency is violating the law by lying on its hands. From a News post written by Prechtel describing the suit:
As the bureau is constitutionally obliged to answer to my request, and as the underlying issues behind my question still haven’t been answered, I have filed a lawsuit upon the FCC for their refusal to carry a logically timely search for the records, and have needed the release of these records. Even now, over three months after my FOIA request, and also after I’ve filed a lawsuit, this request is still listed as “under bureau review.
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