Fake Comments: How US Companies & Partisans Hack Democracy to Undermine Your Voice

This report is the product of an extensive investigation by the New York Office of the Attorney General (OAG) of the parties that sought to influence the Federal Communications Commission’s 2017 proceeding to repeal the agency’s net neutrality rules. In the course of that investigation, the OAG obtained and analyzed tens of thousands of internal emails, planning documents, bank records, invoices, and data comprising hundreds of millions of records. Our investigation confirmed many contemporaneous reports of fraud that dogged that rulemaking process. The OAG found that millions of fake comments were submitted through a secret campaign, funded by the country’s largest broadband companies, to manufacture support for the repeal of existing net neutrality rules using lead generators. And millions more were submitted by a 19- year old college student using made-up identities. The OAG also found that the FCC’s rulemaking proceeding was not unique. Some of the same parties and tactics have infected other rulemakings and processes for public engagement.

• The Broadband Industry’s Campaign to Repeal Net Neutrality Rules in 2017 Resulted in Over 8.5 Million Fake Comments to the FCC — Nearly 40% of the FCC’s Total — and Over Half a Million Fake Letters to Congress
• The FCC Received Over 9.3 Million Fake Comments Supporting Net Neutrality That Used Fictitious Identities, Most of Which Were Submitted by a 19-Year Old College Student Using Automated Software
• Lead Generators’ Fraud in Other Advocacy Campaigns Resulted in Millions More Fake Comments, Messages, and Petitions to Government Entities