Fourteen Americans (with the help of an advocacy group) are complaining to the FCC that their names were used without permission to file fake comments on the proposed net neutrality overhaul.
A letter [PDF] sent to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and signed by the 14 people claims that their names and addresses were used to post comments in support of the planned Title II elimination for ISPs.
“We are disturbed by reports that indicate you have no plans to remove these fraudulent comments from the public docket,” they write.
“Whoever is behind this stole our names and addresses, publicly exposed our private information without our permission, and used our identities to file a political statement we did not sign onto.”
The letter does not name any specific company or group as being behind the filings.
A quick check of the names on the letter with the FCC’s comment site found that nearly all were indeed used to file form comments. One of the signed names does not appear to be associated with any comments on file right now, while another name was connected with eight identical comments.
The letter is part of a campaign being conducted by digital rights group Fight for the Future to expose what it claims are hundreds of thousands of fake comments posted by or on behalf of telcos who support Ajit Pai’s planned overhauls.
Source: US citizens complain their names were used for FCC robo-comments • The Register
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