The narrative presented is that the comments against Net Neutrality came from opponents of Net Neutrality.
There is a more subtle consideration though - to undermine the entire conversation, you could seed fake comments and then present the known opponents to be crooks.
Or, perhaps separate those two actions entirely. One actor seeds fake comments knowing that a watchdog will pick up on it, thus undermining the commenting system.
My gut tells me that after what we’ve been seeing come out of the investigation of the 2016 election, the latter options seems plausible.
Add in to the mix citizens who conflate comments with votes, believing that this is a channel of direct democracy and you begin to see why the whole comment system is flawed.
Or the astroturfing was automated, and didn't expect to catch literally barack obama. However yes, I agree a comment system is not equivalent to a democratic forum.
As a non-american who hasn't followed the FCC debacle, this blows me away.
A government agency acting blatantly against the interests of its people and allowing such tactics is terrible. I hope for appropriate consequences for all involved parties who acted maliciously.
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[ 1.9 ms ] story [ 43.9 ms ] threadThere is a more subtle consideration though - to undermine the entire conversation, you could seed fake comments and then present the known opponents to be crooks.
Or, perhaps separate those two actions entirely. One actor seeds fake comments knowing that a watchdog will pick up on it, thus undermining the commenting system.
My gut tells me that after what we’ve been seeing come out of the investigation of the 2016 election, the latter options seems plausible.
Add in to the mix citizens who conflate comments with votes, believing that this is a channel of direct democracy and you begin to see why the whole comment system is flawed.
A government agency acting blatantly against the interests of its people and allowing such tactics is terrible. I hope for appropriate consequences for all involved parties who acted maliciously.