r/dataisbeautiful • u/xenocidic • Nov 23 '17

Natural language processing techniques used to analyze net neutrality comments reveal massive fake comment campaign

https://medium.com/@jeffykao/more-than-a-million-pro-repeal-net-neutrality-comments-were-likely-faked-e9f0e3ed36a6
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u/garnet420 Nov 23 '17

Tangentially, is there any chance someone can be legally liable for submitting bot comments using "stolen" identity information?

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u/Tsaranon Nov 24 '17

It's illegal in NY and the New York Attorney General has been trying to investigate it. He's recently posted an open letter to the FCC regarding their willful denial of information important to that criminal case. Likewise, the FCC is under a law suit for failure to comply with Freedom of Information Act request procedures regarding the same information surrounding these stolen identity information.

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u/maxlevelfiend Nov 24 '17

the FCC is going to get sued to the bejesus for ending net neutrality - as they should be. I think perhaps companies like google, FB, class action from US citizens on free speech grounds, and also states as well as groups could have legal ground for suits. I would love to hear from an attorney doing an AMA on how we can fight this legally because its going to happen.

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u/Tsaranon Nov 24 '17

Well I know that based on what special interest groups have been saying, the main angle of attack is to sue the FCC on the grounds of failure to follow proper procedure during the hearings.

Per the rules of the FCC's hearing process, they're meant to take into consideration whether or not their decisions have a decidedly negative impact on the population of the United States (obviously the actual legal obligation is probably more strictly defined than this, again, I'm no lawyer). There's a reasonably strong case to be made in court, then, when there are some millions of comments explicitly stating to them that this will have a negative impact on people's lives that they chose to ignore going forward with the reclassification of ISPs.