Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai has proposed updating the agency’s comment system after millions of fake comments were posted in response to the rule change on net neutrality, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Pai sent a letter on July 6 to Sens. Pat Toomey, R-Penn., and Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., requesting permission from Congress to move funds for an overhaul of the FCC’s comment system. Earlier this year, millions of comments were posted to the FCC’s repeal of net neutrality, many of which were made under people’s names without their knowledge or consent.
"It is troubling that some bad actors submitted comments using false names," Pai wrote in the letter, according to the newspaper. "Indeed, like you, comments were submitted in my name and my wife’s name that reflect viewpoints we do not hold."
One of the changes Pai proposes is to require that users fill out a Captcha, which would prove that the comments are being made by humans and not bots.
Merkley told the newspaper that although he is pleased to hear Pai’s suggestions for additional safeguards, he was disappointed that the chairman wouldn’t comment on his request to refer the use of his name to file a public comment to the Justice Department.
"The system of public comment is completely broken and manipulated to the point that it has basically lost any integrity or value."
Open-government advocate Alex Howard, who founded the website e-PluribusUnum.org, said that "adding a Captcha to try to prevent spam, unfortunately, sounds like a solution from the last millennium to a decidedly 21st century set of problems."
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