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Report: FBI opens criminal investigation into net neutrality comment fraud
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is investigating the use of stolen identities in public comments on the government's repeal of net neutrality rules, BuzzFeed News reported Saturday.
The investigation focuses on "whether crimes were committed when potentially millions of people's identities were posted to the FCC's website without their permission, falsely attributing to them opinions about net neutrality rules," the report said.
"Two organizations told BuzzFeed News, each on condition that they not be named, that the FBI delivered subpoenas to them related to the comments," BuzzFeed wrote.
The FBI subpoenas came a few days after similar subpoenas sent by NY AG Barbara Underwood in mid-October. Underwood "subpoenaed more than a dozen telecommunications trade groups, lobbying contractors, and Washington advocacy organizations," The New York Times reported in October.
Previously: John Oliver Leads Net Neutrality Defenders to Crash FCC Website. Again.
Bot Floods the FCC's Website with Anti-Net Neutrality Comments
FCC Officially Publishes Net Neutrality Repeal
U.S. Officially Repeals Net Neutrality Rules; FOIA Request Reveals Details of Bogus DDoS Attack
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai Passes Blame Over Lying About Public Comment System Being DDoSed
99.7 Percent of Unique FCC Comments Favored Net Neutrality
Ajit Pai Admits Russia Interfered in Net Neutrality Process amid Lawsuit
(Score: 4, Informative) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday December 11 2018, @08:58PM (11 children)
In other news, hostile foreign governments interfering in US regulatory processes totally fine, Republicans declare.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by fustakrakich on Tuesday December 11 2018, @09:30PM (9 children)
Certain it was foreigners? Why would they care about the FCC when American companies actually have something to lose? Doesn't make sense. It's kinda like blaming Iraq for 9/11. Or what, this time they're telling the truth?
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 5, Informative) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday December 11 2018, @09:38PM (8 children)
Certain it was foreigners?
Ajit Pai admitted it was in a legal filing. [soylentnews.org]
So unless he's perjuring himself to frame the very people that gave him cover to do what he wanted, I's probably true.
(Score: 2, Informative) by fustakrakich on Tuesday December 11 2018, @10:21PM (2 children)
Let's look at that, shall we?
Why is "fact" in quotes? Because it isn't, maybe?
So, what do we have?
Whoops! That's it?? Sorry, man. You know that shit don't fly. It's too easy to "photoshop" that junk too.
How long has this crap been going on? two years or more? And you still have no admissible evidence. So far you still have only hearsay from jailbirds and other interested parties... I sure wish you guys had something so we could get rid of these people and move on, but the goal seems to keep the game running as long as possible so the elephant remains invisible.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday December 11 2018, @10:53PM (1 child)
Why is "fact" in quotes?
Because it's a quote.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Tuesday December 11 2018, @11:05PM
By him. They could have actually quoted the whole sentence. What was the reason not to? Anyway, the story is bullshit, a distraction. And contrary to your faith, the democrats will be of no help. The distraction is for their benefit. SNAFU
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Tuesday December 11 2018, @10:30PM (2 children)
Well, shame on me for not following through!
From the actual court filing apparently is this:
thankyouverymuch
Maybe there is possible perjury. We shouldn't be surprised by that, should we? Seems to be pretty common in this dirty business.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 4, Informative) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday December 11 2018, @10:36PM (1 child)
I'm sorry, didn't he say there was nothing wrong with the comments 2 years ago?
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Tuesday December 11 2018, @10:45PM
That's what he said in court. He's apparently giving the tabloids a different story. Either way, there is still the small problem of actual, verifiable, admissible evidence.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by mr_mischief on Tuesday December 11 2018, @10:45PM (1 child)
It's very convenient to blame someone within a sovereign foreign government when the subpoenas start getting served. If it's anyone in the US stealing identities and committing basic fraud and wire fraud that's who's going to be compelled to appear and potentially serve a sentence.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 12 2018, @05:40PM
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_Epstein [wikipedia.org]
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/article220097825.html [miamiherald.com]
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/jeffrey-epstein-victims-lawyers-push-ruling-non-prosecution-deal-n946581 [nbcnews.com]
If you wanted the swamp drained, he sounds like the guy whose connections should have been investigated more thoroughly, but lookee, he gets a slap on the wrist and told not to have his dick around anything underage in NY and he's free to go, while allowing all those people he has blackmail and proof of paedophelia on to get away. People who could collapse the Democrats, Republicans, Bankers, and Hollywood all in one fell swoop.
If you need more proof that the system isn't working for the people, look right there. Just to make it even more egregious, look at how little they were getting paid. Overage prostitutes here in California get paid more than that. Good ones in the four to five figures a night.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by realDonaldTrump on Wednesday December 12 2018, @01:06AM
"There is no serious person out there who would suggest somehow that you could even rig America’s elections, there’s no evidence that that has happened in the past or that it will happen this time, and so I’d invite Mr. Trump to stop whining and make his case to get votes." The President Obama quote just before election. That’s because he thought Crooked Hillary was going to win and he didn’t want to "rock the boat." When I easily won the Electoral College, the whole game changed and the Russian excuse became the narrative of the Dems.
I told my FBI to look into this one VERY CLOSELY. Like they looked into Judge Bart. FBI did 6 investigations of Judge Bart. And every time he came out smelling LIKE A ROSE. Like a goddamned Rose. But I told them, guys, take another look. Do that 7th investigation. For Bart. For Dr. Ford. And for the American people. Who I always always put first. And guess what, Brat passed brilliantly. 100%. And now he's on SC. Starting a very long career on SC. And he's going to be remembered as one of our greatest Justices.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Fluffeh on Tuesday December 11 2018, @08:59PM (13 children)
That's really about all my thoughts on this matter. Great that an investigation is being brought to order, I hope that it gets to the bottom of who did what - and then most importantly WHY they did it. Was it to further their own goals, was it to further the goals of their donors or friends or was it to try to do the right thing and what people wanted to have done by the repeal.
I hope all of that comes to light in a simple, easy to read document that gets the air-time it deserves.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday December 11 2018, @09:00PM (5 children)
Poll: 83 percent of voters support keeping FCC's net neutrality rules [thehill.com]
(Score: 1, Disagree) by fustakrakich on Tuesday December 11 2018, @09:33PM (4 children)
Gee, I wonder why they didn't elect a congress to do it... Stop listening to media polls. They are garbage.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 11 2018, @09:45PM (1 child)
You promise to be online every time I have a question? It is clear that only you are capable of divining Universal Truth.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Tuesday December 11 2018, @10:09PM
You promise to be online every time I have a question?
Nope. You're on your own, kid...
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Thursday December 13 2018, @03:21PM (1 child)
Because there was no way to vote for such a Congress. All Republicans and a substantial percentage of Democrats support the ability of telecoms to do pretty much whatever they want, and all non-Demoblicans/Republicrats are too powerless to gain control of Congress. The Democrats that are supportive of net neutrality are mostly the ones who get more of their money from Google and Facebook rather than Comcast and AT&T.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Thursday December 13 2018, @09:19PM
Well, that only means people shouldn't vote for republicans and democrats. Gotta work on the source of the problem, not its symptoms.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 3, Informative) by Thexalon on Tuesday December 11 2018, @09:28PM (2 children)
Unfortunately, what's at least as likely is that there will be a "thorough" investigation that concludes that they can't figure out who was responsible. Ajit Pai made the decision he wanted to make, and the main reason we know this is that his job before running the FCC was lobbying for telecoms to try to convince the FCC to repeal their net neutrality rules. The "public" comments, such as they were, were to give him a political excuse to do it, not to actually influence anybody in power.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by bob_super on Tuesday December 11 2018, @10:13PM (1 child)
I have yet to see a Pai decision that is negative for Verizon.
Some decision may be Verizon-neutral (if not involved at all), but most can be directly traced to a benefit for Verizon.
Trump must really admire his loyalty to his masters. Maybe he'll get the Chief of Staff job.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 11 2018, @11:22PM
Why would Trump want someone loyal to Verizon as his chief of staff?
Or are you assuming his loyalties will change with the job change this time?
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Tuesday December 11 2018, @10:20PM (2 children)
Nothing will happen to anybody involved in this, because why would it?
The people who stand to benefit the most from this are the same people who fund the people who make the rules.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday December 11 2018, @11:17PM (1 child)
Something may still happen: 'discovering' that those who stand to benefit were 'not involved' and they are as white as the wash.
Magic!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Tuesday December 11 2018, @11:35PM
Probably.
If telling massive porkies to Congress while under oath is not a crime, why would identity theft be?
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday December 11 2018, @10:38PM
With heavy media promotion and distribution, in early October, 2020. I'm guessing it was suppressed to keep it out of play for the midterms.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 11 2018, @09:28PM (1 child)
text goes here.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 11 2018, @09:54PM
Am hume.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by stretch611 on Tuesday December 11 2018, @09:49PM (2 children)
Even if they show that various cable-friendly trade groups and organizations illegally submitted thousands of anti-net neutrality comments,
I do not see this changing anything.
Trump, Ajit Pai, and their allies got the result they wanted, and I do not see them admitting anything being wrong. They sure as hell will not repeal their own dumping of Net Neutrality.
Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
(Score: 3, Informative) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday December 11 2018, @10:23PM
I do not see this changing anything.
It's not going to reverse the FCC decision. Democrats are going to need to fix that.
What is will do is hold the people who committed identity theft and defrauded the regulatory process responsible for their crimes. That's a good thing by itself.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday December 11 2018, @10:41PM
Laws, acts, and all manner of created rules can be reversed. If they find that the comments were "trumped up," it should at least trigger a revisitation of the process and a possibility of reversing the outcome. The timing to make something like that happen is the key. As far as I can read public opinion, the longer this drags out the more likely it will get reversed.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 5, Informative) by digitalaudiorock on Tuesday December 11 2018, @11:01PM
The FBI should be investigating the FCC and Pai himself for withholding evidence [arstechnica.com] of this. As I understand it, he did so even when requested by state prosecutors. That is obstruction of justice in every sense of the fucking word.