The New York Times Sues FCC For Net Neutrality Records (bna.com) 55
The New York Times Company on Thursday filed a lawsuit against the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) concerning records the newspaper alleges may shed light on possible Russian participation in a public comment period before the commission rolled back Obama-era net neutrality rules. Bloomberg reports: The plaintiffs, including Times reporter Nicholas Confessore and investigations editor Gabriel Dance, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Sept. 20 under the Freedom of Information Act, seeking to compel the commission to hand over data. "The request at issue in this litigation involves records that will shed light on the extent to which Russian nationals and agents of the Russian government have interfered with the agency notice-and-comment process about a topic of extensive public interest: the government's decision to abandon 'net neutrality,'" the plaintiffs alleged.
Why do the Russians care about network neutrality? (Score:3)
What is the connection between Russians and network neutrality? I get that there were fake comments, but I thought they were forged by telecom companies or organizations that were fooled by telecom companies. Is the Russian angle just to get them release the records?
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> I've got no reason why the New York Times thinks Russia is involved in this. It makes no sense.
Actually it makes perfect sense if someone used some Russian proxies/VPNs/etc. to comment with in order to later "uncover" the fact that Russian's commented on an open web form that invited public comment for the purpose of giving them ideas and feedback about how to proceed. Remember: this freak out was going on while comments were still open, as well.
It's about like people talking about "identity theft" o
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You forget that the Russian troll mission is merely to create discord in open societies like America. They do not care what the topic is so long as they can stimulate you to hate other Americans. Looks like they did a great job on you. Personally I am looking forward to watching the civil war on T.V. it should be entertaining.
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Me? Well, I'm learning the Canadian national anthem. I just hope they'll allow someone from a shit hole country like the USA to emigrate there.
Be sure you are learning the new words (they were just changes so if you look up an old reference you will be learning the wrong lyrics).
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You have some strange fantasies.
Re:Why do the Russians care about network neutrali (Score:5, Insightful)
One way to gain economic dominance is to convince the other side to blunder into an economically harmful decision.
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They don't. They just want to start shit and disrupt civil society, and posting fake shit online is cheap and easy to do.
It's like asking why the Anonymous Coward does what he does on Slashdot. There is no why. It's just vandalism for the information age. Terrorism for those too cowardly to actually risk anything.
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I think it's just to create chaos.
I mean, if there's anything at all to the "Russians did it" in so many fields their main motivation seems to be create conflicts, not create any specific advantage.
It does seem like the one side effect of the social internet is that you can create real conflict very easily.
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If I had to guess....
I would say because the free flow of information across the internet allows the general public to better educate themselves and learn information which makes it harder for Americans to mindlessly be led unlike the ones who get their information exclusively through Television (Which is owned from 1 of 5 companies which are able to control the flow of that information).
Also that Net Neutrality is actually a free market protection that allows more businesses to thrive than otherwise would
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The real issue is Trump and the Russians.
Remember, Trump has not divested himself of his businesses, something Presidents do to avoid conflict of interest situations where they may do legislation that benefits them directly. Every time Trump goe
The Russians didn't make any difference (Score:5, Insightful)
Ajit Pai was determined to roll back net neutrality regardless of any outside influence (including comments from actual citizens). It was a done deal once he got appointed FCC commission chair.
Re:The Russians didn't make any difference (Score:4)
+ 1
Yes it was clear that Apple Pai intended to revoke NN rules, even if 100% of the comments were pro-NN. Any Russian influence is irrelevant.
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According to Pai the states don't have the power to implement their own rules so it wasn't part of Pai's plan to allow local rule making. The only plan Trump has is anything that makes him look good and gives him more power. I don't think it matters much to him what side of the political spectrum it comes from.
Russian, again? (Score:2)