“No one should have their identity co-opted by manipulative companies and used to falsely promote a private agenda," said New York Attorney General Le

[butters]

Three companies accused of falsifying millions of public comments to support the contentious 2017 federal repeal of net neutrality rules have agreed to pay $615,000 in penalties to New York and other states, New York's attorney general said Wednesday.

The penalties come after an investigation by the New York state Office of the Attorney General found the fake comments used the identities of millions of consumers, including thousands of New Yorkers, without their knowledge.

Two of the California-based companies, LCX Digital Media and digital marketing company Lead ID, LLC., were hired by the broadband industry to enroll consumers in a campaign to support repeals to Obama-era net neutrality rules. Instead, they each independently fabricated responses for 1.5 million consumers. The third, marketing company Ifficient Inc., supplied more than 840,000 fake responses.

while i'm glad their behaviour has been recognised and challenged in a court of law, i don't see the fine of less than 1million dollars reflects the identity theft of millions of people involved. a slap on the wrist, though hands are probably tied to be able to award further punitive damages. Whether or not they are now open to civil cases brought against them by individuals, i can't say, but i find it hard to see how they're NOT liable given the proof of evidence.

This is the second series of agreements secured by James with companies that supplied fake comments to the Federal Communications Commission. The nation’s largest broadband companies had funded a campaign to generate more than 8.5 million of fake comments submitted to the FCC, with more than half a million fake letters sent to Congress, her office said.

the role of these companies was to collect and share data with the FCC, which uses such data to determine its rules and policies

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/com...1&cvid=7db3aa23bf8a43c796bed4a46ecb08ca&ei=31