One group dominates the second round of network neutrality comments

A letter-writing campaign that appears to have been organized by an organization with ties to the Koch Brothers inundated the Federal Communications Commission with missives opposed to network neutrality, an analysis by the Sunlight Foundation reveals.

Some key findings include:

• In marked contrast to the first round, anti-net neutrality commenters mobilized in force for this round, and comprised the majority of overall comments submitted, at 60 percent. We attribute this shift almost entirely to the form-letter initiatives of a single organization, American Commitment, who are single-handedly responsible for 56.5 percent of the comments in this round.
• In large part because of this campaign, the percentage of comments submitted that we believe to have been form letter submissions was significantly higher for this round than the last one, at 88 percent.
• Combined with the first round comments, we characterize 41 percent of the total comments submitted as being anti-net neutrality (with the balance being a mix of pro-NN and comments with no clear opinion), and we estimate that 79 percent of submissions came as part of form letter campaigns.