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from the say-it-often-enough-and-people-will-tend-to-believe-you dept.
I used natural language processing techniques to analyze net neutrality comments submitted to the FCC from April-October 2017, and the results were disturbing.
NY Attorney General Schneiderman estimated that hundreds of thousands of Americans' identities were stolen and used in spam campaigns that support repealing net neutrality. My research found at least 1.3 million fake pro-repeal comments, with suspicions about many more. In fact, the sum of fake pro-repeal comments in the proceeding may number in the millions. In this post, I will point out one particularly egregious spambot submission, make the case that there are likely many more pro-repeal spambots yet to be confirmed, and estimate the public position on net neutrality in the "organic" public submissions.
The author's key findings:
- One pro-repeal spam campaign used mail-merge to disguise 1.3 million comments as unique grassroots submissions.
- There were likely multiple other campaigns aimed at injecting what may total several million pro-repeal comments into the system.
- It's highly likely that more than 99% of the truly unique comments³ were in favor of keeping net neutrality.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday December 03 2017, @02:55AM (2 children)
No, that's what I usually do. Vote for the absolute worst candidate to bring about revolution quicker. This time I was hoping to throw some third-party chaos into the mix next election cycle. Didn't pan out but I don't bemoan my choice and I'd make the same one again.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 03 2017, @03:06AM (1 child)
I disagree with Buzzard on this matter (less of the thing which caused the problem GOOD), but it's still funny/sad to see all the crabs in the pot clamping furiously at CraBuzzard to make sure he stays firmly within the confines of the pot.
There are no winners. Buzzard sees this. Why can't the rest of you? I think Buzzard's approach (what little I know of) is weaksauce, but then I can't expect EVERYone to decide to pare down all their title-able property and give the IRS the middle finger. You people think you're better than Buzzard? Step up and prove it! Stop voluntarily fueling the Beast!
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday December 03 2017, @03:14AM
I do not have crabs, thank you very much. I shave regularly.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.