The New York attorney general’s office issued a report Thursday confirming that some of the US’s largest broadband providers engaged in a massive campaign to flood the Federal Communications Commission with fake comments in the run-up to the commission’s 2017 order to roll back net neutrality. The attorney general’s multi-year investigation found that fake comments accounted for the vast majority of comments received in response to the order — nearly 18 million, out of a total of 22 million.
“We have to learn from these lessons and improve because the public deserves an open and fair opportunity to tell Washington what they think about the policies that affect their lives.” The three main companies found to have falsely influenced the FCC’s rollback — Fluent, React2Media, and Opt-Intelligence — entered into settlements with the attorney general’s office, requiring the companies to pay over $4 million in total. The attorney general’s office also found 9.