Home WebMail Monday, November 4, 2024, 11:22 AM | Calgary | 0.4°C | Regions Advertise Login | Our platform is in maintenance mode. Some URLs may not be available. |
  • No news available at this time.
Posted: 2017-11-22T21:38:40Z | Updated: 2017-11-22T21:38:40Z

The Federal Communications Commission received millions of suspicious comments in support of its plan to repeal net neutrality, and it ignored multiple requests for evidence that would explain their origin. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman isnt happy about that.

On Tuesday, one day after Trump-appointed FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai announced he would forge forward with a plan to gut net neutrality , Schneiderman published an open letter calling out the agency for some serious misdeeds.

In particular, he noted the FCC has refused multiple requests for crucial evidence that is essential to his offices ongoing investigation into the fake comments. Since many of those comments used the identities of hundreds of thousands of real Americans, Schneiderman says, whoever submitted them likely broke the law.

The New York attorney general says his office requested the FCC records at least nine times over five months from multiple top FCC officials, yet received no substantive response.

That lines up with the experiences of others who are looking into the origins of the comments.

On Sept. 8, a freelance journalist name Jason Prechtel filed suit against the FCC after it failed to respond in a timely manner to a Freedom of Information Act request he filed for similar information regarding the comments.

And at least three other groups also filed lawsuits earlier this year after their FOIAs requesting information on the FCCs net neutrality comment-gathering process were ignored.