In government by the people, what if the people aren’t who they say they are?

Public comment processes are supposed to promote government of the people, by the people and for the people. So what happens when the people aren’t who they say they are? BuzzFeed reports that political operatives are engaging in campaigns of impersonation to co-opt opportunities for everyday Americans to tell officials and lawmakers what they think of pending policies.

The investigation is the latest development in a long-simmering story about the Federal Communications Commission’s decision to scrap net neutrality strictures. The agency drew 22 million submissions on the subject, a sky-high yield that looked on the surface like democracy at its digitally enhanced best. The only problem? Many of those comments came from addresses that did not actually exist. Others were supposedly submitted by Mickey Mouse and more of pop culture’s finest. Most startling, others still seemed to come from beyond the grave — attached to names of the deceased. Nearly 8 million comments in support of net neutrality appeared to have been created at FakeMailGenerator.com. Yet the most sophisticated campaign, and the most insidious, was by all indications carried out by at least two strategy firms working on behalf of a broadband industry group. These firms misappropriated names and other personal information to upload a tsunami of comments decrying the now-defunct Obama-era strictures, and they exploited data stolen from tens of millions of Americans in a huge 2016 hack to do it.