127.0.0.1
I actually wouldn't be surprised, if this were a reverse-proxied piece of software.
Judge Orders FCC To Hand Over IP Addresses Linked To Net Neutrality Comments
11–20 of 82 posts
Re: Judge Orders FCC To Hand Over IP Addresses Linked To Net Neutrality Comments
#12Friendly reminder that there were massive bot compaigns on both sides of the issue. https://archive.fo/sp9Q7 this WSJ article found thousands of people that said they never posted the comments attributed to them. >One 369-word comment supporting the Obama-era net-neutrality rules was posted on the FCC website more than 300,000 times. One of those was attributed to Gloria Burney, 87, a retired speech therapist in Los…
And of course, if the tinfoil hat mentality is appealing, why not one actor spamming comments for _both_ sides? If said actor prefers one position they can just have a an order-of-magnitude difference in what they submitted; either way, said hypothetical party can be satisfied with eroding public trust in the process.
Perhaps - my own pet theory is it was just some bored guys on 4chan who did it because they could.
The thing is, a lot of the bots didn't submit comments directly, which would have required getting keys to submit in bulk and leave a trail. Instead, they filled out forms on the many sites that were set up to take names and submit form letters to the FCC. So some advocacy org might set up a site and get a million comments, half of them might be legit and half might be from a script kiddy running a database of addresses and names through the site, which then submits it to the FCC. The site has no particular incentive to vet the submissions. Knowing the IP address of the entity who sent the message to the FCC is close to useless, in that scenario.
Re: Judge Orders FCC To Hand Over IP Addresses Linked To Net Neutrality Comments
#13This is definitely a touchy subject. As the article notes, this will remove the privacy from all people who commented on net neutrality, but it will also allow 2 NYTimes reporters to try to figure out why there were fake comments that led to the loss of neutrality for the people. The separate question that still needs to be figured out, is who is going to be penalized for lying to the american people and taking away…
The privacy aspect to this is definitely touchy: > The FCC argued in court that making the millions of IP addresses contained in the logs publicly accessible would constitute an “unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.” And while [Judge Schofield] didn’t entirely disagree, she said the agency had failed to adequately spell out how anyone would be harmed by the disclosure. > Regardless, Schofield said she also decid…
What’s crazy is if you own the ISP (who generally wants to repeal net neutrality) you already know which names are associated with each IP as well as other information since you looked up their credit score among other things.
Re: Judge Orders FCC To Hand Over IP Addresses Linked To Net Neutrality Comments
#14Friendly reminder that there were massive bot compaigns on both sides of the issue. https://archive.fo/sp9Q7 this WSJ article found thousands of people that said they never posted the comments attributed to them. >One 369-word comment supporting the Obama-era net-neutrality rules was posted on the FCC website more than 300,000 times. One of those was attributed to Gloria Burney, 87, a retired speech therapist in Los…
I found a comment attributed to my parents, asked them about it and they had no idea how it could have happened.
Re: Judge Orders FCC To Hand Over IP Addresses Linked To Net Neutrality Comments
#15This is definitely a touchy subject. As the article notes, this will remove the privacy from all people who commented on net neutrality, but it will also allow 2 NYTimes reporters to try to figure out why there were fake comments that led to the loss of neutrality for the people. The separate question that still needs to be figured out, is who is going to be penalized for lying to the american people and taking away…
The privacy aspect to this is definitely touchy: > The FCC argued in court that making the millions of IP addresses contained in the logs publicly accessible would constitute an “unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.” And while [Judge Schofield] didn’t entirely disagree, she said the agency had failed to adequately spell out how anyone would be harmed by the disclosure. > Regardless, Schofield said she also decid…
This is really great news and I admire the judge's dedication to truth and justice. It makes me wonder how much pressure the judge recieved behind-the-scenes before making this ruling. Excited to see how this develops. Unfortunately I suspect the answer is probably more mundane than anything; e.g. the comments were from a botnet which the FCC lacks technical competence to deal with.
Re: Judge Orders FCC To Hand Over IP Addresses Linked To Net Neutrality Comments
#16I remember that there were websites that allowed users to comment on NN that had pre-made comments already completed. The user only needed to enter a valid email address and could then forward the comment to the FCC or erase and put in their comment in their own words. I could see how this would look like obvious spam if users did not take the time to modify the form into their own thoughts. This shall be very interesting indeed. Pass the popcorn.
Re: Judge Orders FCC To Hand Over IP Addresses Linked To Net Neutrality Comments
#17This is definitely a touchy subject. As the article notes, this will remove the privacy from all people who commented on net neutrality, but it will also allow 2 NYTimes reporters to try to figure out why there were fake comments that led to the loss of neutrality for the people. The separate question that still needs to be figured out, is who is going to be penalized for lying to the american people and taking away…
The privacy aspect to this is definitely touchy: > The FCC argued in court that making the millions of IP addresses contained in the logs publicly accessible would constitute an “unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.” And while [Judge Schofield] didn’t entirely disagree, she said the agency had failed to adequately spell out how anyone would be harmed by the disclosure. > Regardless, Schofield said she also decid…
I’m a bit confused about the privacy issue here. Isn’t the (alleged) commenter’s full name and address published along with their comment in the public filing? If the commenter’s address is already published what other information can be gleaned from their IP address? Is the fear that someone could use it to piece together a person’s web history?
Re: Judge Orders FCC To Hand Over IP Addresses Linked To Net Neutrality Comments
#18What bugs me the most is that the government either doesn't really want to know who's interfering with the democratic process or they know and they're not telling us.
The former implies extreme ignorance, the later implies agency capture to the point the FCC is no longer a public institution.
Re: Judge Orders FCC To Hand Over IP Addresses Linked To Net Neutrality Comments
#19[deleted]
Re: Judge Orders FCC To Hand Over IP Addresses Linked To Net Neutrality Comments
#20Friendly reminder that there were massive bot compaigns on both sides of the issue. https://archive.fo/sp9Q7 this WSJ article found thousands of people that said they never posted the comments attributed to them. >One 369-word comment supporting the Obama-era net-neutrality rules was posted on the FCC website more than 300,000 times. One of those was attributed to Gloria Burney, 87, a retired speech therapist in Los…
And of course, if the tinfoil hat mentality is appealing, why not one actor spamming comments for _both_ sides? If said actor prefers one position they can just have a an order-of-magnitude difference in what they submitted; either way, said hypothetical party can be satisfied with eroding public trust in the process.
I would consider the scenario where it was not just 1 person/group, you could have more then 1 person trying to cheat the system in favor of his favorite tribe or even just trolls practicing their scripting skills.