Jason S. Miyares
Attorney General of Virginia

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Commonwealth of Virginia
Office of the Attorney General

Mark Herring
Attorney General

202 North Ninth Street
Richmond, Virginia 23219

 

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ATTORNEY GENERAL HERRING ASKS FCC TO DELAY NET NEUTRALITY RULEMAKING

~ AG Herring joins coalition of 18 attorneys general to express concern about falsified comments to the FCC ~

RICHMOND (December 14, 2017) - Attorney General Mark R. Herring and 17 fellow state attorneys general wrote to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) expressing their concern about falsified comments made to the FCC, and asking the Commission to delay its rulemaking process.

 

"Public comments are an important way for Americans to let their voices be heard, and reports of falsified and fraudulent comments to the FCC are deeply troubling," said Attorney General Mark Herring. "The FCC should delay any rulemaking on net neutrality until we get to the bottom of the potential fraud that was committed and have a full understanding of how changes to net neutrality will impact our citizens."  

 

Joining Attorney General Herring in signing the multi-state letter, which can be found here, are Attorneys General of California, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington.

 

"A careful review of the publicly available information revealed a pattern of fake submissions using the names of real people. In fact, there may be over one million fake submissions from across the country. This is akin to identity theft on a massive scale - and theft of someone's voice in a democracy is particularly concerning," wrote the Attorneys General.

 

The Attorneys General end the letter by writing, "It is essential that the Commission gets a full and accurate picture of how changes to net neutrality will affect the everyday lives of Americans before they can act on such sweeping policy changes."

 

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