Fake Comment Problems Extend Beyond FCC, Must Be Addressed, Rosenworcel Says

The federal government, not just the FCC, has been hit with a wave of fake comments in rulemaking proceedings, and the government needs to go after bad actors and find a way to make sure feedback is real, FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel said Monday at the State of the Net conference. Critics of the overturn of the 2015 net neutrality rules alleged many comments were fake (see 1712130051), but Rosenworcel said the problem goes much deeper. “There is a concerted effort to exploit our openness,” she said. “It deserves a concerted response.”

Rosenworcel cited allegations the FCC, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Department of Labor, SEC and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission encountered problems with stolen identities. “We are looking at a systemic effort to corrupt the process by which the public participates in some of the biggest decisions being made in Washington,” she said. Agency filing systems are “ill-equipped to handle the mass automation and fraud that is corrupting channels for public comment” and the problem will only get worse, she said.

Agencies like hers need to fully investigate fake filings, Rosenworcel said. “We’re going to have to build systems that can withstand this assault, and in order to do so, we need to know where this is all coming from.” Every agency should consider simple security measures, including two-factor authentication, to make sure comments aren’t fake, she said. “And every agency can do something old-fashioned -- they can hold public hearings.”

Former Democratic FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz said during a panel that most everyone wants light-touch regulation as part of net neutrality, but you do need a regulator. “You also need competition,” said Leobowitz, now at Davis Polk. “You also need competition. You also need to have an agency that goes after companies when they violate competitive norms or the Sherman Act.”

The FTC is a “muscular agency” and will continue to do consumer protection cases and competition cases, Leibowitz said. The better solution on net neutrality is a federal approach, he said. “It is not a crazy-quilt patchwork of state laws.” The Trump administration’s approach on net neutrality could work if DOJ and the FCC show leadership, he said. There are now four nominees for the FTC, he said. “That is a good sign.”

Larry Irving, NTIA administrator under President Bill Clinton, said the current net neutrality regime can’t work. “You need both the FCC and the FTC and you need symmetrical regulation,” Irving said. “What we have right now is the worst of all worlds. You’ve got the FTC, kind of, sort of, with some authority. You’ve got the FCC abrogating [oversight] completely. ... How is the possibly working for anyone?”

What everyone needs from regulators is “leadership,” said Chris Lewis, vice president at Public Knowledge. “We’re seeing an abdication of leadership in the current ruling on net neutrality” and in other areas as well, he said. “It’s not just about net neutrality.”

The FCC has to play a big role on issues like ISP privacy, said Chip Pickering, president of Incompas. “It has the expertise, the experience and the resources.” Making the FTC the net neutrality cop is like asking the Peace Corps to be the Marines, he said. “It’s just not the right fit.” The problem with antitrust enforcement is it’s a “post-failure solution,” said Pickering, formerly a House Republican. “Competition policy at the FCC can keep the market healthy, functioning, and our country much more prosperous.”

If there are “rules of the road” on net neutrality, they should be rules approved by Congress with bipartisan support, Leibowitz said. On privacy rules, almost everyone under 30 will say there is no privacy, Irving said. “Part of that is because those of us in Washington have led them to believe it.”

5.9 GHz Tests

On a spectrum panel, Julius Knapp, chief of the FCC Office of Engineering and Technology, said the agency is still conducting tests on sharing between auto safety applications and Wi-Fi in the 5.9 GHz band. Tests started in the summer of 2016 (see 1707190041). “We’ve been doing tests at our laboratory, stay tuned, more to come on that,” he said. The FCC is likely to soon release a report on the first round of testing. “We’re working on it right now,” Knapp said. Knapp mentioned, without offering specifics, industry work on new cellular vehicle-to-everything (C-V2X) technology as an alternative to dedicated short-range communications (DSRC) (see 1801220024).

Low-, mid- and high-band spectrum will play a role in 5G, Knapp said. “I have committed to never say what is the upper bound for mobile spectrum.” Knapp said he wrote a letter decades ago that suggested 1 GHz would be the highest band for wireless. The world is seeing an “explosion” in applications, he said. Some of the apps require little bandwidth and some need a lot, he said. “The capacity is really needed for all of those things.”

Different wireless technologies also allow for different amounts of latency, Knapp said. “It might not matter if my smart meter is updating two seconds later,” he said. “What’s changing is that now I can have real-time interactions with things. If I want to control a machine at a distance, I can’t move the handle and then watch three seconds later when the machine moves.”

Karen Peterson, commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Telecommunications and Cable, said she shares some of the concerns about the Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee, voiced by San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo, who resigned from BDAC last week (see 1801250049). As a state regulator, “when you bring up terms like preemption and deemed granted, it sends a chill down my spine,” she said. “Those aren’t terms that localities are thrilled about.”

As a member of the BDAC, Peterson said compromise still seems possible. “Communities understand that they need the infrastructure, they want the technology and they want to work with industry,” she said. “We need to figure out how we can do that collaboratively.” Many have complained that the local governments and states aren’t adequately represented, she said. “I’m doing all I can as a state regulator to bring some equilibrium to the BDAC … but it’s hard.” In most states, broadband is increasingly viewed as critical infrastructure, Peterson said. “We’re not quite there yet … but it’s getting there.”

The top priority of Senate Commerce Chairman John Thune, R-S.D. is getting the Mobile Now Act through Congress, said aide Crystal Tully. “I know parts of Mobile Now are being considered as piecemeal bills” in the House, she said. “We hope to see Mobile Now passed by the law and signed into law. It was a bipartisan bill that passed out of the Senate.” Thune is also looking at a 5G deployment bill, with a staff discussion starting to make the rounds and some bipartisan support is emerging, she said.