<story><title>FCC Proposes Changing Comment System After WSJ Found Thousands of Fakes</title><url>https://www.wsj.com/articles/fcc-proposes-rebuilding-comment-system-after-thousands-revealed-as-fake-1531315654</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>RIMR</author><text>Making people pay to report illegal activity is just insane.  This is literal fascism - and I&amp;#x27;m not just being hyperbolic.</text></item><item><author>MBCook</author><text>They’re also going to drop unofficial complaints against ISPs. You’ll have to pay the $230 to make an official complaint if you think they’re doing something illegal.</text></item><item><author>craftyguy</author><text>So basically, it doesn&amp;#x27;t really matter if comments are fake or legitimate, if pai is going to ignore them anyways.</text></item><item><author>0xbadcafebee</author><text>Some background:&lt;p&gt;28 senators, and the New York Attorney General, had to tell Pai to stop the FCC voting on new rules last year because of all the fraudulent comments. The fake comments were made apparent over a year ago. &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.cnet.com&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;net-neutrality-fcc-ajit-pai-bots-senators-letter&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.cnet.com&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;net-neutrality-fcc-ajit-pai-bots-s...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;The FCC refused to provide records to the NY AG in order to investigate the possibility of fake comments. In other words, the NY AG was the only part of the government investigating the fake comments, and the FCC actively worked against investigating them. &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.slashdot.org&amp;#x2F;story&amp;#x2F;17&amp;#x2F;12&amp;#x2F;10&amp;#x2F;0037222&amp;#x2F;fcc-refuses-records-for-investigation-into-fake-net-neutrality-comments&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.slashdot.org&amp;#x2F;story&amp;#x2F;17&amp;#x2F;12&amp;#x2F;10&amp;#x2F;0037222&amp;#x2F;fcc-refuses...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Pai&amp;#x27;s office issued this response to calls to delay the vote:&lt;p&gt;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;  This is just evidence that supporters of heavy-handed Internet
  regulations are becoming more desperate by the day as their effort
  to defeat Chairman Pai&amp;#x27;s plan to restore Internet freedom has stalled.
  The vote will proceed as scheduled on December 14.
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;
As promised, the FCC voted to repeal Net Neutrality.&lt;p&gt;And now, 7 months later, the FCC is saying there were fraudulent comments, and maybe they should redesign their website.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>dang</author><text>This comment broke the HN guidelines badly by throwing extraneous flamebait into the thread. That&amp;#x27;s gross negligence, and it led to a ridiculous flamewar about fascism. Please don&amp;#x27;t post like this again.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;newsguidelines.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;newsguidelines.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Edit: it looks like you&amp;#x27;ve been breaking the guidelines in other places too (like &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=17494098&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=17494098&lt;/a&gt;). We ban accounts that do that, so please re-read the rules and use this site as intended from now on.</text></comment>
<story><title>FCC Proposes Changing Comment System After WSJ Found Thousands of Fakes</title><url>https://www.wsj.com/articles/fcc-proposes-rebuilding-comment-system-after-thousands-revealed-as-fake-1531315654</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>RIMR</author><text>Making people pay to report illegal activity is just insane.  This is literal fascism - and I&amp;#x27;m not just being hyperbolic.</text></item><item><author>MBCook</author><text>They’re also going to drop unofficial complaints against ISPs. You’ll have to pay the $230 to make an official complaint if you think they’re doing something illegal.</text></item><item><author>craftyguy</author><text>So basically, it doesn&amp;#x27;t really matter if comments are fake or legitimate, if pai is going to ignore them anyways.</text></item><item><author>0xbadcafebee</author><text>Some background:&lt;p&gt;28 senators, and the New York Attorney General, had to tell Pai to stop the FCC voting on new rules last year because of all the fraudulent comments. The fake comments were made apparent over a year ago. &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.cnet.com&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;net-neutrality-fcc-ajit-pai-bots-senators-letter&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.cnet.com&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;net-neutrality-fcc-ajit-pai-bots-s...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;The FCC refused to provide records to the NY AG in order to investigate the possibility of fake comments. In other words, the NY AG was the only part of the government investigating the fake comments, and the FCC actively worked against investigating them. &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.slashdot.org&amp;#x2F;story&amp;#x2F;17&amp;#x2F;12&amp;#x2F;10&amp;#x2F;0037222&amp;#x2F;fcc-refuses-records-for-investigation-into-fake-net-neutrality-comments&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.slashdot.org&amp;#x2F;story&amp;#x2F;17&amp;#x2F;12&amp;#x2F;10&amp;#x2F;0037222&amp;#x2F;fcc-refuses...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Pai&amp;#x27;s office issued this response to calls to delay the vote:&lt;p&gt;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;  This is just evidence that supporters of heavy-handed Internet
  regulations are becoming more desperate by the day as their effort
  to defeat Chairman Pai&amp;#x27;s plan to restore Internet freedom has stalled.
  The vote will proceed as scheduled on December 14.
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;
As promised, the FCC voted to repeal Net Neutrality.&lt;p&gt;And now, 7 months later, the FCC is saying there were fraudulent comments, and maybe they should redesign their website.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>ars</author><text>You have to pay to file in court.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;ve always felt that was wrong, but that is how it works, and it&amp;#x27;s not fascism, so yes, you are being hyperbolic.</text></comment>