Judge Orders FCC to Hand Over IP Addresses Linked to Fake Net Neutrality Comments:
A Manhattan federal judge has ruled the Federal Communications Commission must provide two reporters access to server logs that may provide new insight into the allegations of fraud stemming from agency’s 2017 net neutrality rollback.
A pair of New York Times reporters—Nicholas Confessore and Gabriel Dance—sued the FCC under the Freedom of Information Act after it refused their request to view copies of the logs. The logs will show, among other details, the originating IP addresses behind the millions of public comments sent to the agency ahead of the December 2017 net neutrality vote.
The FCC attempted to quash the paper’s request but failed to persuade District Judge Lorna Schofield, who wrote that, despite the privacy concerns raised by the agency, releasing the logs may help clarify whether fraudulent activity interfered with the comment period, as well as whether the agency’s decision-making process is “vulnerable to corruption.”
The FCC argued in court that making the millions of IP addresses contained in the logs publicly accessible would constitute an “unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.” And while Schofield didn’t entirely disagree, she said the agency had failed to adequately spell out how anyone would be harmed by the disclosure.
Regardless, Schofield said she also decided to weigh any hypothetical harm against the potential value of the information to the public. “In this case, the public interest in disclosure is great because the importance of the comment process to agency rulemaking is great,” she said, adding: “If genuine public comment is drowned out by a fraudulent facsimile, then the notice-and-comment process has failed.”
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The Federal Communications Commission has scheduled an April 25 vote to restore net neutrality rules similar to the ones introduced during the Obama era and repealed under former President Trump.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 Rosenworcel 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."
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In a filing with the FCC, Turner wrote that "ISPs have been incredibly bullish about the future of their businesses precisely because of the network investments they are making" and that the companies rarely, if ever, mention the impact of FCC regulation during calls with investors."We believe that the ISPs' own words to their shareholders, and to industry analysts through channels governed by the SEC, should be afforded significantly more weight than evidence-free tropes, vague threats, dubious aggregate capital expenditure tallies, or nonsensical math jargon foisted on the Commission this docket or elsewhere," Turner wrote.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 03 2020, @04:58AM
(Score: 3, Insightful) by fustakrakich on Sunday May 03 2020, @05:31AM (6 children)
And we all know the luck we have getting documents from this man.
What will be revealed is that there are only a very few IP addresses, not millions, linked to domestic interests
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 03 2020, @02:30PM (1 child)
On the contrary. The corporations that it serves are far more powerful than that.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by fustakrakich on Sunday May 03 2020, @02:59PM
Yes, they serve the corps through the prez
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 3, Insightful) by PartTimeZombie on Sunday May 03 2020, @10:45PM (3 children)
What might be revealed is that the logs have been deleted of course.
I'm pretty contempt of court is not really a thing any more.
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Sunday May 03 2020, @10:47PM
Whoops.
"I'm pretty sure..."
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Sunday May 03 2020, @11:06PM
I'm pretty [sure] contempt of court is not really a thing any more.
Depends who you are
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 04 2020, @05:08AM
Presidential order refusing permission to comply in 3...2....1....
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 03 2020, @06:39AM
Yes, troll, dick, TMB equivalent, what ever. but once you mod it all the way down, we cannot mod it Spam! And in situations where a Spam mod is severely called for, that is an injustice. Mod him up, so we can mod him t hell! Donald Trump is the Anti-American Anti-Christ, Grandson of German draft dodger, Son of a KKK sympathizer, and father in law to a fucking incompetent Jewish New York Landlord Prince. Burn them all down. Rent strike, against Trump properties, especially by the Secret Service.
(Score: 0, Offtopic) by aristarchus on Sunday May 03 2020, @06:44AM (2 children)
Strange, nothing works. SN is toast. Enemies inside the gates. The Bill gates. '
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 03 2020, @08:48AM (1 child)
aristarchus doesn't work? What a surprise - NOT!!
(Score: 1, Insightful) by aristarchus on Sunday May 03 2020, @10:26AM
Well, of course not, having been retired for some 2320 years, and living off investments of the artificial
grainElectric car shortage ofSeptimus SeverusMusk, and doing quite well, thank you. But, I do understand that money is nothing, the thing that makes thieves and whores, businessmen and entrpreneurs, politicians and Republican Senators,, um do things. But the motivating factor of no one who is not a slave. As our poor khallow is. Poor khallow, slave to money, and since he cannot make it himself. slave to those who have money, whom he worships on bended over. Poor khallow.(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 03 2020, @02:36PM
“If genuine public comment is drowned out by a fraudulent facsimile, then the notice-and-comment process has failed.”
Also, if the appeals process takes this long, then it has failed. The results are predictable. It will be one of the same comment farms that are used to keep the fundamentalist right nodding every time a fascist says something stupid.
(Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 03 2020, @07:07PM
The US-ian government has no interest in listening to the 'public'.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by PinkyGigglebrain on Sunday May 03 2020, @10:48PM
The first reason I can think of as to why the FCC might not want those IP address revealed is that a large number of them, if not all of them, will be from FCC controlled networks.
The second is that they resolve to netowrks owned by the various anti-net neutrality lobby groups and telcos.
the third is that the IP addresses will be shown to be fabricated and all the bulk of the a-NN comments will turn out to have been added locally by the FCC.
in any case the simple fact that he FCC is fighting so hard to keep the logs concealed is enough to suspect that they have something they want to hid, and it has nothing to do with protecting the average citizen's privacy.
"Beware those who would deny you Knowledge, For in their hearts they dream themselves your Master."