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Three Companies Impersonated Millions to Influence Internet Policy

ag.ny.gov

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Re: Three Companies Impersonated Millions to Influence Internet Policy

#111

Post by arp242 »

green_man_lives wrote: post #90
sva_ wrote: post #11

This kind of shit is one of the reasons why people stop believing in western democracy.

Net Neutrality was one of the handful of things I wrote my representatives about. I knew it was going to be mostly fruitless, but goddamn this is disgusting.

The same people who wrote the comments also sent about half a million fake letters to members of congress, about 900 per representative.

The bad news is that they did this. The good news is that they thought this would help, so writing your representative perhaps isn't entirely useless?

Re: Three Companies Impersonated Millions to Influence Internet Policy

#112

Post by __MatrixMan__ »

jonathankoren wrote: post #109
__MatrixMan__ wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's put some shareholders in prison.

Just the executives

If my dog bites somebody, I'm on the hook. It should be no different with companies--otherwise there's no incentive to avoid funding shady behavior.

Stock ownership is rewarding because it's risky. Let it be risky.

Re: Three Companies Impersonated Millions to Influence Internet Policy

#116

Post by pooper »

__MatrixMan__ wrote: post #112
jonathankoren wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just the executives

If my dog bites somebody, I'm on the hook. It should be no different with companies--otherwise there's no incentive to avoid funding shady behavior. Stock ownership is rewarding because it's risky. Let it be risky.

I will not silently go to prison because my 401k worth under USD 20k owns 0.0015 shares as a part of some mutual fund. The CEO and the board do not do my bidding. Send them to prison.

Re: Three Companies Impersonated Millions to Influence Internet Policy

#117

Post by ynoatho »

explorer83 wrote: post #72
boomerango wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Puts on conspiracy hat What if killing net neutrality was a given, but the administration wanted the appearance of due process… God, I’ve grown jaded.

I mean, the rhetoric for net neutrality was pretty extreme. According to the rhetoric of the time, we would be living in a world of internet "fast lanes" right now if net neutrality didn't pass. Only services affiliated with the big greedy telcos were going to be given a pass while all the other services on the web were going to require additional fees to get adequate bandwidth to/from. That was a major fear mongerin…

> According to the rhetoric of the time, we would be living in a world of internet "fast lanes" right now if net neutrality didn't pass.

Anything remotely resembling this existed almost a decade ago in a very different landscape, and what you're saying isn't even really reflective of the reality at the time. The vast majority of reasonable people were talking about what would gradually happen if the concept of net neutrality was totally thrown out; in the interim both sides have constructed more nuance, there is more public awareness, more partisanship, and thus different goalposts being fought over.

Now we have a ruling that the FCC can't limit state net neutrality law, because Verizon was literally fucking THROTTLING FIREFIGHTERS DURING A MAJOR WILDFIRE. Less "fast lane," more "death lane." ISPs know that the current environment won't tolerate their unchecked fantasies.

Re: Three Companies Impersonated Millions to Influence Internet Policy

#118

Post by dragonwriter »

ummonk wrote: post #6

"An investigation by the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) found that the fake comments used the identities of millions of consumers, including thousands of New Yorkers, without their knowledge or consent." $615k seems like a slap on the wrist for what they did.

> $615k seems like a slap on the wrist for what they did.

It is. But its also state and local officials using state law to try to get any punishment for what is a fairly serious federal crime that, for some reason, the federal government has elected not to prosecute. [0]

[0] https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1001

Re: Three Companies Impersonated Millions to Influence Internet Policy

#119

Post by lost_tourist »

exabrial wrote: post #87

My problem with Net Neutrality is what is its the "wrong way" to deal with a pesky problem: entrenched local monopolies. Net Neutrality is "oking" monopolistic behavior, under a narrow set of stipulations. I don't trust Comcast any farther than I could throw their CEO. I just don't see this ending well. I think the alternatives: expanding access, increasing competition, improving technology and promoting innovation,…

It's a step in the right direction. Enabling localities to set up their own competing internet services would be the logical follow up to that.

Re: Three Companies Impersonated Millions to Influence Internet Policy

#120

Post by tootie »

twunde wrote: post #113

Techdirt has a good writeup of this press release https://www.techdirt.com/2023/05/12/ny-ag-doles-out-wrist-sl...

In theory it's possible the settlement was done in exchange for evidence against the telcos. One can dream at least.
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