The era of enshrined net neutrality is on the verge of ending in the United States. The Federal Communications Commission plans to repeal Obama-era protections of the free and open internet, put in place by the web’s founding fathers.
Other than communications companies like the major ISPs, who could possibly support that?
Well it turns out that during the public commenting period, a lot of people offered their support for the repeal. More remarkable still? Many of them used the same language to do so. How coincidental!
Now there’s an investigation into whether the process was contaminated, with a data scientist claiming up to 1.3 million of the comments posted were probably fake.
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Now the New York Attorney General’s office has released a tool (via DSLReports) that allows Americans to discover whether their identities were stolen in order to provide bogus support for the FCC’s grossly unpopular plan.
“The Office of the New York State Attorney General is investigating whether public comments regarding net neutrality rules wrongfully used New Yorkers’ identities without their consent.” New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s office writes.
“We encourage you to search the FCC’s public comment website and tell us if you see any comments that misuse your name and address.”
The tool isn’t just available to New Yorkers, but all Americans seeking to discover whether their name has been used to show support for the repeal.
The FCC vote, which is all but assured to pass due to the partisan make-up of the committee, is on December 14.
Should the protections be removed, internet service providers will have the ability to charge customers more to access certain content and throttle speeds from rival providers.
It’ll be the end of the world (wide web) as we know it, and we don’t feel fine.
Do you think the UK will be next if the US destroys net neutrality? Drop us a line @TrustedReviews on Twitter.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
