How many 2017 public comments on net neutrality were fake?

An investigation by the New York Attorney General’s Office has found that well over half of all the public comments on the Federal Communications Commission’s net neutrality rollback in 2017 were fake. There were 22 million comments in total, putting the number of fraudulent ones at about 18 million.

The broadband industry was reportedly responsible for the larger majority of the fake comments at about 8.5 million, while another 7.7 million apparently came from a 19-year-old college student and the remaining ones were from unknown sources. While the evidence that many of the claims were fraudulent was apparent all the way back in 2017, the investigation’s report sheds a new light on not only the presence of fraudulent claims but the scope as well.

“Nearly every comment and message the broadband industry submitted to the FCC and Congress was fake, signed using the names and addresses of millions of individuals without their knowledge or consent,” according to the report.