Anti-Net Neutrality Crowd Gets Nasty, Turns To Junk Bots And Dirty Spams

The war centered on the topic of Net Neutrality is starting to get nasty. When “Last Week Tonight” host John Oliver asked his viewers to leave comments on the Federal Communications Commission’s website in support of a free and open internet last Sunday, it caused a server crash, though, the commission attributed this to a DDoS attack. Now, anti-Net Neutrality groups are fighting back by using junk bots and spamming activities.

It’s easy to see which side is showing its nasty side in this confrontation. Supporters of Net Neutrality are leaving genuine comments from real people, but those against it are flooding the FCC’s website with fake comments from bots, Fortune reports.

Generally speaking, it’s not that difficult to spot spam comments left by bots. The structure, word arrangements, and grammar mistakes are often repeated, and when done in the dozens or thousands, it becomes even more obvious that it’s not real people leaving the comments.

In the case of the anti-Net Neutrality comments being posted on the FCC’s website, as many as 128,000 comments that are closely or exactly identical are being used to drown the voice of genuine Americans, ZDNet reports. They are also the same or follow a similar structure to one particular comment.

"The unprecedented regulatory power the Obama Administration imposed on the internet is smothering innovation, damaging the American economy and obstructing job creation," the comment reads. "I urge the Federal Communications Commission to end the bureaucratic regulatory overreach of the internet known as Title II and restore the bipartisan light-touch regulatory consensus that enabled the internet to flourish for more than 20 years."

Aside from the fake comments flooding the website, it would seem that a lot of offensive posts are also popping up. Many racist comments are being directed at current FCC chair Ajit Pai, who is an Indian-American, the majority of which appear to be from duplicate or fake accounts.