AGSchneiderman
Joined 9 years ago
Karma
733
Submissions
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Dec 1
Attorney General for the State of New York.
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Comment · 9 years ago
It may violate a number of laws, including laws against impersonation or misuse of identity and falsification or forgery. Depending on facts we uncover, it could also be a form of a deceptive business practice. Some of that conduct is criminal under NY law, and some of it also constitutes a civil violation.
Comment · 9 years ago
There’s a long history of neutrality regulation for networks – going back even before the internet – even though the requirements have taken different forms over the years. And when those regulations were enforced they ended practices that hurt consumers and companies that wanted to provide services over those networks. Here’s a great summary of the history: https://www.wired.com/story/how-the-fccs-net-neutrality-plan.... The current net neutrality regulations under Title II are strong and address the many forms of discriminatory (i.e., anti-neutrality) conduct we’ve seen in the past.
I have to respectfully disagree with a premise in your second question, that deregulation is what would allow for more market competition. The history clearly shows that when neutrality regulation was in place and enforced, it increased competition, for example: in 2005 it protected VoIP against discrimination by a phone company with a competing service; in 2008 it protected online video against discrimination by a cable company offering cable video on-demand. Moreover, ISPs invested in broadband infrastructure over the years because net neutrality was protecting edge providers, which led to huge innovations like online video, which in turn helped drive ever greater consumer demand for broadband that justified further infrastructure investment.
Comment · 9 years ago
You’re right that it can be easy to spot comments that may be fake, but to have confidence that certain comments are fake requires further analysis. One reason is that the mere use of identical text in multiple comments (even large numbers of comments) isn’t necessarily evidence of misconduct – many public interest groups use web forms with pre-prepared comment text that people can fill out, or they circulate petitions for people to sign to provide consent to having the same “form letter” comment submitted on their behalf. So we look to other attributes that are shared across certain comments to help us determine if they’re likely fake. While we’ve already gathered enough evidence to conclude that a million comments are likely fake, we’re still analyzing others. And of course, it would be much easier and quicker to identify which comments are likely fake if we could analyze FCC records showing the source(s) of comments (which we would keep confidential given the possible identifying information), but the FCC refused to respond to our repeated requests over many months.
Comment · 9 years ago
In 2014 the court struck down net neutrality rules that prevented blocking and discrimination, which the FCC had issued under Title I of the 1934 Communications Act. But in 2016 the court upheld net neutrality rules that prevented blocking and discrimination, which the FCC had issued under Title II.
Going back to the early 2000s, the FCC has espoused broadband neutrality principles that prevented discrimination against certain types of traffic. In 2005, the FCC articulated these principles in what became known as the “four freedoms” and used them to stop network providers from discriminating against traffic that competed with their own services, for example: in 2005 the FCC stopped phone company Madison River’s blocking of Vonage VoIP calls that competed with Madison’s call service; and in 2008 the FCC stopped Comcast’s blocking of online video services that competed with its on-demand cable offering.
Comcast sued, and in 2010 a federal appellate court ruled that Title I didn’t authorize the FCC to make Comcast comply with the FCC’s net neutrality policies. So the FCC then issued a new regulation in 2010 that, among other things, banned blocking and other “unreasonable discrimination.” Verizon then sued, and in 2014 the same court ruled that anti-blocking and anti-discrimination rules couldn’t be imposed under Title I. The court suggested, however, that the FCC could issue such rules if it reclassified broadband internet in a way that put them under Title II. In 2015, the FCC issued neutrality rules under Title II, and when ISPs again sued, the court this time upheld the rules and they are currently in effect.
Chairman Pai’s FCC wants to repeal those rules, even though the court held that they were valid in 2016, and even though the courts orders from 2010 and 2014 essentially preclude the FCC from issuing neutrality rules under Title I.
If you want to take a really deep dive into the history of neutrality, which goes back 50 years, I recommend reading this: https://www.wired.com/story/how-the-fccs-net-neutrality-plan...
Comment · 9 years ago
You’re not alone. Many Americans – especially those far from major cities -- have only a single ISP available, others have only two ISPs. That’s why competition is more limited in the market for broadband than in other markets (because consumers can’t “vote with their feet” by switching to a competitor), and that’s a major reason I believe the existing net neutrality regulation under Title II is needed.
Comment · 9 years ago
The law in our country requires federal agencies to provide every citizen with the right to notice and the opportunity to have his or her voice heard in policymaking. We now know from my office’s investigation and other reports of major flaws in the current proceeding that our citizens have not been given the opportunity to be truly heard, because the real voices are being drowned out, negated, or undermined by fake comments, stolen identities, and other irregularities.
I disagree with those people who call the comment period a mere “PR gimmick.” For approximately 70 years America has had laws requiring federal agencies to provide citizens with notice of certain policy changes and an opportunity to make their voices heard. The last time net neutrality was up for consideration, the FCC received an outpouring from the public in favor of Title II net neutrality protections, and the FCC ultimately adopted those rules.
Comment · 9 years ago
That's awful and I'm sorry to hear it. You can report the fake comment to my office at https://ag.ny.gov/fakecomments.
Comment · 9 years ago
This comment was submitted under the name and address of someone we will call Jill, in Rochester, New York.
As it turns out, Jill’s father wasn’t very happy about that submission because the real Jill is only 13 years old and never submitted any comment.
We also saw a woman in Albany who supposedly submitted a comment in July of 2017. Sadly, her son reached out to us to say that was impossible because she had died in June.
Even right here in my office, my assistant press secretary had a phony comment submitted under her name using the address of her childhood home.
These are just a few of the thousands of comments that have been reported to my office.
Comment · 9 years ago
If you have ideas for how to help my office's investigation, we welcome them. You can get in touch at https://ag.ny.gov/contact-attorney-general.
Generally speaking, I encourage anyone who wants to get involved in the fight to protect net neutrality to reach out to organizations they support that have been active and vocal here, and offer their support. Nonprofits and advocacy organizations are always in need of committed, talented people who are willing to help organize, including people with technical talent. Don’t be afraid to reach out.
Comment · 9 years ago
I’m glad you asked – this is a very important question. In short, the regulation is needed to protect against ISPs prioritizing their profits over their consumers, which is something we have seen in the past where regulations were lacking.
As a preliminary matter, it’s important to recognize that net neutrality principles and protections in different forms have actually been around since 2005 and even earlier. So the flourishing of the internet and everything relying on it during that time occurred under the protections. A few years ago, however, the courts struck down one form of net neutrality protections (those that had relied on Title I of the Communications Act), so then in 2015 the FCC put net neutrality protections back in place under Title II instead (they also expanded the earlier protections, e.g., to include protections against abuses related to interconnection, which had not been the subject of net neutrality protections before 2015). Now, in 2017, the FCC under Chairman Ajit Pai is proposing to repeal net neutrality protections altogether (and the courts’ earlier decisions effectively foreclose a return to net neutrality protections under Title I). So that would be entirely new territory for the internet.
Why do we think that’s bad? Well, as I explained in my own public comment in the current proceeding (https://ecfsapi.fcc.gov/file/10717583023587/FINAL%20RIF%20Co...), we’ve seen how companies behave in the absence of net neutrality protections, specifically in the area of interconnection before it was regulated in 2015, and their unregulated conduct harmed consumers. In essence, they made a deliberate business decision to let the quality of internet access degrade, knowing that it hurt consumers, to try to squeeze revenue out of edge providers like Netflix and backbone providers like Cogent and Level 3. Plus, we know that many consumers have few ISPs to choose from, so competition isn’t as effective a check as in other markets. So I believe strong net neutrality regulations are needed to avoid harms to consumers.
Comment · 9 years ago
Not finished yet -- I'll be in and out today to answer your questions. Thanks to all for taking the time to join me.
Comment · 9 years ago
On Congress: Many members of Congress have already spoken up and called on the FCC to halt the process until the problems with public comments can be investigated. I hope more of our elected officials in Washington take up that call. If enough members of Congress support net neutrality, especially if it is a bipartisan group, then I believe the FCC is less likely to repeal the strong Title II net neutrality protections that we know the overwhelming majority of Americans support.
On what you can do: I’ve called on the FCC to delay its vote. So has FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, one of the leading champions of net neutrality. And so have at least 28 U.S. Senators. Americans absolutely have the right to make their preferences known to their elected representatives in Washington, and I encourage you to do so, especially if those officials haven’t already spoken publicly about net neutrality. If members of Congress – speaking on behalf of their constituents – speak out on any issue, their statements matter.
My interest in a pause in the process is to get to the bottom of the fake comments and misuse of New Yorkers’ identities, and to make sure real Americans are given the right to have their voices heard. At heart, what we're talking about aren't the merits of net neutrality -- it's the integrity of the democratic policymaking process and the rule of law. In that way, I believe such a delay would be very beneficial to any ultimate result.
Comment · 9 years ago
Wow – I’m honored! The volcano of bad ideas coming out of this administration has kept me busy on a lot of fronts, so I haven’t had as much time as I’d like to keep myself up to date on the boards here. But I can say that my staff – especially in my Bureau of Internet & Technology – does try to keep up on the news in tech and any potential problems we need to address. My understanding from them is that the tech community has been incredibly active on net neutrality, and incredibly helpful and supportive of our efforts on the issue. I thank you all for that. If you have a specific proposal for how to help our office's investigation, I encourage you to get in touch and my team will get back to you as soon as they can.
Comment · 9 years ago
We've received and we welcome submissions from people across the country. As New York's Attorney General, my responsibility is to the people of New York. But what happened in the NN comment process affects all of us. I think that's why we've had AGs from other states reach out to us for information along these lines. So if your identity was misused, I encourage you to notify your state officials as well.