BALTIMORE, MD (December 13, 2017) – Maryland Attorney General Brian E. Frosh and 17
other Attorneys General today wrote to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
expressing their concern about falsified comments made to the FCC, asking the Commission to
delay its rulemaking deadline.
“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 ended 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.”
The multi-state letter was signed by the Attorneys General of California, Delaware, the District
of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi,
North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, Vermont, and Washington.