Tag Archives: astroturfing

FCC ordered to provide IP addresses tied to fake net neutrality comments

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The FCC might not have much choice but to hand over data logs for fake net neutrality comments. A federal judge has ordered (via Gizmodo) the regulator to turn over server records to New York Times reporters that would reveal the IP addresses behind...

Big tobacco keeps starting ‘grassroots’ Facebook campaigns

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This article was produced in partnership with Point, a YouTube channel for investigative journalism. Facebook groups like 'Oregonians Against Tax Hikes' and 'No Blank Checks for Colorado' look like citizen groups concerned about taxes. But after...

Many of the Brexit Party’s Twitter followers appear to be bots

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It's not shocking to see Twitter bots latch on to a political campaign, but it's not often they do so soon after a campaign starts -- let alone on a large scale. That appears to be the case with the UK's Brexit Party, however. The no-deal EU withdr...

FCC received thousands of fake letters supporting NFL’s blackout rule

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Fake FCC comments aren't just reserved for net neutrality opponents. The Wall Street Journal has discovered that the FCC received about 21,000 identical letters urging the regulator to let the NFL keep its blackout rule, which let it ban cable and sa...

Representatives ask GAO to investigate FCC net neutrality comments

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It's not just senators calling for a review of the FCC's millions of fake anti-net neutrality comments. Representatives Elijah Cummings, Greg Meeks and Frank Pallone have sent a letter to the Government Accountability Office asking it to investigate...

FCC will help New York investigate fake net neutrality comments

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To say the FCC has been reluctant to look into the millions of fake comments supporting its decision to kill net neutrality would be an understatement. The Commission did nothing to tackle the issue for months, and repeatedly stonewalled New York sta...

FCC stonewalls demands for evidence of cyberattack

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The FCC swears that a denial of service attack hit its servers hours after Last Week Tonight's John Oliver rallied support for net neutrality, but where's the evidence? Well, don't expect it any time soon. In an interview with ZDNet, the regulator's...