Contents
The nation’s largest companies backed a secret campaign that provided millions of negative public comments to influence a 2017 move by the Federal Communications Commission to repeal Obama-era net neutrality rules. Today Attorney General Letitia James today announced agreements with three companies involved in this project that require them to accept comprehensive changes in their advocacy campaigns and pay penalties of $4.4 million.
Smoothly
The nation’s biggest companies backed a secret campaign to fill the Federal Communications Commission with misinformation during the 2017 repeal of net neutrality rules, according to a new Attorney General’s report of New York.
The industry group Broadband for America hired a solicitation firm that paid several marketing companies to collect names and other personal information from Americans. The marketers used those names to submit form responses to the FCC and half a million false letters to Congress.
The three companies, Fluent, Opt-Intelligence and React2Media, have now agreed to a $4.4 million settlement with the Attorney General’s office and to make behavioral changes. They need to change their ways, and advocacy groups need to make sure they are licensed to provide the client’s name before doing this type of work. These companies are also required to install technical safeguards to prevent the bulk of unauthorized submissions of misleading comments. Subscribe to Law360 to stay up-to-date on all the news, analysis and opinions you need to win your cases.
Choose-Wise
Three leading generators have agreed to settle with the New York attorney general. They must change their business practices and pay more than $4.4 million. They must also stop misleading customers in future campaigns. The companies are Fluent, Opt-Intelligence and React2Media.
Companies have hired online marketers to sign up customers for the campaign, promising them gift cards and sweepstakes. They then submitted form responses on behalf of consumers, and created fake letters to Congress. These companies are said to have violated state law by misrepresenting their identity and engaging in numerous fraudulent activities.
Companies hide their identities under different names and use fake addresses, phone numbers and other personal information in comments. They also spoof IP addresses to appear as if they are from different locations. Corporate tactics undermined democracy and distorted the outcome of the neutrality process. An investigation by Attorney General Letitia James found that 18 million of the 22 million public comments submitted to the Federal Communications Commission about the elimination of net neutrality were false.
React2Media
React2Media, part of digital marketing group ispDigital, is a leading social media and influencer platform. The company’s technology and services empower businesses to build, manage, and scale large communities of influencers across the U.S., as well as Europe and Latin America.
According to the New York Attorney General’s office, a trade association representing broadband companies paid for a campaign that helped generate millions of false positives in support of repealing net neutrality rules. The trade association, Broadband for America (BFA), paid $4.2 million to a firm that hired dozens of “lead generator” companies. These lead generators were supposed to use rewards, such as gift cards and sweepstakes entries, to sign up customers for the BFA campaign, but instead they only generated customer responses, according to Attorney General’s report.
Finally, the BFA campaign contributed to the submission of 8.5 million public comments to the FCC as part of its rulemaking process and more than half a million comments to Congress. The three companies that provided these false statements – Fluent, Opt-Intelligence and React2Media – entered into negotiations with the Attorney General’s Office. In total, they will pay more than $4 million and agree to changes in their business practices.
LCX
LCX is one of the world’s first regulated crypto exchanges for professional investors. Its platform offers many services including a cryptocurrency trading platform, a managed blockchain ecosystem, a compatible token sale manager and a tokenization platform.
The company claims to have global offices in the US and Liechtenstein. Its vision is to become one of the world’s leading cryptocurrencies and blockchain ecosystem. Its LCX cryptocurrency is also traded on Coinbase, one of the most popular exchanges in the USA.
Two companies, LCX Digital and Lead ID, have been hired by the broadband industry to sign up customers in a campaign supporting the repeal of Obama-era net neutrality rules. The firms created responses for 1.5 million customers and provided another 840,000 fake feedback from other generators they hired, prosecutors said. They used customer names and other information stolen from the massive Modern Business Solutions database breach and customer-provided listings.
Sources :
