By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 6-7-17

According to political and policy lobbying group the National Legal and Policy Center, almost a quarter million pro-net neutrality comments in the FCC’s Restoring Internet Freedom docket have come from outside the U.S., including from Russia.

According to the self-described government watchdog group, which said it had conducted a forensic analysis of comments filed between May 24 and May 27, 236,999 comments were sent from domains in France (92,161), Germany (84,618), and Russia (60,220).

NLPC says exact language was submitted “thousands of times” using “fake email addresses, fake international physical addresses, and likely fake names.”

“As we noted last week with the discovery of hundreds of thousands of fake comments in the docket, the full extent of compromised pro-net neutrality comments is not known,” said National Legal and Policy Center president Peter Flaherty.  “But the gaming of the FCC’s comment system appears to be massive and now encompassing overseas bot campaigns utilizing fake foreign physical and email addresses to submit comments,” he said.  » Read More