Sens Merkley and Toomey Call on FCC to Address Identity Theft and Fraud in Public Comments

Sens Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Pat Toomey (R-PA) issued a strong call to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai to identify and address fraudulent behavior that has led to potentially two million fake comments being filed under stolen identities on public rulemakings. Though they come from different sides of the aisle, Sens Merkley and Toomey share a personal connection to this issue: Both had their identities stolen to file false comments on the FCC’s net neutrality proposals. “Late last year, the identities of as many as two million Americans were stolen and used to file fake comments during the Federal Communications Commission’s comment period for the net neutrality rule,” the Sens wrote. “We were among those whose identities were misused to express viewpoints we do not hold. We are writing to express our concerns about these fake comments and the need to identify and address fraudulent behavior in the rulemaking process.” The Senators specifically encouraged the agency to consider using CAPTCHA technology to help weed out comments posted by bots.