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. Chairman Pai said in a letter to Sens Pat Toomey (R-PA) and Jeff Merkley (D-OR) that he was proposing “to rebuild and re-engineer” the commission’s electronic comment system “to institute appropriate safeguards against abusive conduct.” Among the changes proposed by the senators and accepted by Chairman Pai was to require commenters to fill out a Captcha—a system designed to prove humans rather than bots provided the information.