James Grimaldi
The NFL’s Other Problem: Fake Fans Lobbying for the Blackout
“I write as a football fan,” read the letter to the Federal Communications Commission, “to strongly urge you to maintain the FCC’s current broadcast rules.” There may have been thousands of bogus, identically worded letters generated on the National Football League’s behalf, posted in 2014 to the FCC’s website from scores of “fans." These supposed fans opposed an FCC move to repeal the sports blackout rule, a rule that banned cable and satellite providers from showing home games that weren’t sold out when the NFL blocked local TV broadcasts of those games. The decades-old blackout rule aime
FCC Proposes Rebuilding Comment System After Millions Were Found Fake
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai proposed an overhaul of the agency’s online comment system after millions of fake comments were posted about a recent FCC rule change.
Millions of People Post Comments on Federal Regulations. Many Are Fake.
The Wall Street Journal has uncovered thousands of fraudulent comments on regulatory dockets at federal agencies, some using what appear to be stolen identities posted by computers programmed to pile comments onto the dockets. After sending surveys to nearly 1 million people—predominantly from the FCC docket—the Journal found a much wider problem than previously reported, including nearly 7,800 people who told the Journal comments posted on federal dockets in their names were fakes.