Judge: FCC can’t hide records that may explain net neutrality comment fraud

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The Federal Communications Commission must stop withholding records that may shed light on fraudulent comments submitted in the FCC’s net neutrality repeal proceeding, a US District Court judge ruled last week.

The ruling came in a lawsuit filed in September 2017 by freelance journalist Jason Prechtel, who sued the FCC after it failed to provide documents in response to his Freedom of Information Act (FoIA) request. Prechtel sought data that would identify people who made bulk comment uploads; many of the uploads contained fraudulent comments submitted in other people’s names without their knowledge.

Prechtel called the ruling “a huge victory for transparency over an issue that has gone unanswered by the FCC and its current leadership for too long.”