Pallone Urges DOJ Probe of Claims Net Neutrality NPRM Comments Filed Using Stolen ID

House Commerce Committee ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J., urged the DOJ and FBI to investigate whether comments on the FCC May NPRM on a potential rollback of the 2015 net neutrality order and reclassification of broadband as a Communications Act Title II service filed under stolen identities violated federal law. Fourteen people claimed last month that comments were submitted fraudulently under their names in support of a rollback of the rules (see 1705250064). Additional claims since allege comment astroturfing and filings using false names (see 1705310019 and 1706070017). Pallone said in a Wednesday letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions and acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe he's concerned by reports that about 450,000 identical comments submitted to docket 17-108 used information obtained from data breaches. “I am deeply concerned that the sheer number of these potentially false comments suggest a coordinated attempt to materially mislead the FCC, and therefore a coordinated attempt to break federal law,” Pallone told Sessions and McCabe. “I urge you to take swift action to investigate who may be behind these comments and, if appropriate under applicable federal law and regulations, prosecute the people behind these fraudulent comments.” Pallone and other House Democrats wrote commissioners and Department of Homeland Security National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center Director John Felker seeking information about the May distributed denial-of-service attacks on the FCC website believed to have affected comments in the net neutrality proceeding (see 1705170067 and 1706260059). Separately this week, the commission released its response to other members of Congress on the attack (see 1706280044).