{"articles":[{"reaction_config":[{"text":"Yes","color":"#624960","stance":"yes"},{"text":"Maybe","color":"#edb723","stance":"maybe"},{"text":"No","color":"#4ac6ec","stance":"no"}],"id":7214,"title":"The FCC Lied About a Cyberattack – Should It Affect the Net Neutrality Repeal?","html_content":"

by Causes | 8.14.18

What’s the story?

\r\n

\nThe Senate Commerce Committee is expected to grill Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai on Thursday for falsely claiming that his agency was hit by a cyberattack during a comment period on net neutrality.\n

\r\n

What’s the backstory?

\r\n

During the public comment period on net neutrality – which Pai eventually repealed - the FCC’s servers became unavailable. At the time, Pai and other members of the FCC told Congress that the outage had been caused by a Distributed Denial of Service, or DDoS, cyberattack.
Last week, however, the FCC Inspector General (IG) released a report which found that the agency lied to members of Congress multiple times when responding to a letter about the DDoS cyberattack—because the attack never happened.
Investigators believe that FCC officials made false statements to Congress, and referred the case to federal prosecutors.
Here is the critical section from the IG report, in full:

\r\n

“The May 7-8, 2016 degradation of the FCC’s ECFS was not, as reported to the public and to Congress, the result of a DDoS attack. At best, the published reports were the result of a rush to judgment and the failure to conduct analyses needed to identify the true cause of the disruption to system availability. Rather than engaging in a concerted effort to understand better the systematic reasons for the incident, certain managers and staff at the Commission mischaracterized the event to the Office of the Chairman as resulting from a criminal act, rather than apparent shortcomings in the system.”

How could this affect the net neutrality rollback?

As Business Insider explained, the false statements about the DDoS attack, and Pai’s delay in retracting them, “could linger long past Thursday's hearing.”

How?

“For one thing, should the Democrats recapture one or more houses of Congress this fall, they're likely to subject Pai to much more critical scrutiny going forward than have their Republican colleagues.”
“It also might make them more likely to press forward with legislation that would effectively overturn his repeal.”
The false statements could also affect the legal battle over the repeal. “When considering new rules, the FCC is required by law to take public comments into account,” Business Insider wrote. Groups suing the FCC to try and overturn the new rules plan to argue that the agency “failed in its duty to seriously gather and consider the public's comments.”

What is Pai saying?

Pai blamed his former chief information officer and the Obama administration for providing “inaccurate information about this incident to me, my office, Congress, and the American people.”
Four Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee sent a letter to Pai on Tuesday, \"demanding to know when he and his staff learned that the Commission had provided inaccurate information about why its comment system went down during the net neutrality repeal public comment period.\"

What do you think?

What do you want Congress asking Pai at Thursday's hearing? Should the FCC revisit the repeal of net neutrality? Do you want net neutrality rules reinstated? Click Take Action and tell your reps, then share your thoughts below.

—Josh Herman

(Photo Credit: USDA via Flickr)

","image_urls":{"large":"https://ul.countable.us/ul/q_auto/uploads/gZAMg8wZ/7afe46/large_61227-1519073115.jpg","medium":"https://ul.countable.us/ul/q_auto/uploads/gZAMg8wZ/7afe46/large_61227-1519073115.jpg","small":"https://ul.countable.us/ul/q_auto/uploads/gZAMg8wZ/7afe46/large_61227-1519073115.jpg","thumb":"https://ul.countable.us/ul/q_auto/uploads/gZAMg8wZ/7afe46/large_61227-1519073115.jpg","xsmall":"https://ul.countable.us/ul/q_auto/uploads/gZAMg8wZ/7afe46/large_61227-1519073115.jpg"},"links":{"self":"https://www.causes.com/articles/7214-fcc-lied-cyberattack-affect-net-neutrality-repeal","article_comments":"https://www.causes.com/api/articles/7214-fcc-lied-cyberattack-affect-net-neutrality-repeal/comments"},"comment_count":195,"action_count":909,"cta_prompt":null,"cta_type":"reactions","share_count":52,"published_at":"2018-08-14T19:31:15.970Z","is_countable_article":true,"allow_advocacy":true,"profile_id":1,"signed":false,"signatures_count":null,"signatures_goal":100,"signable_progress":0,"video_url":null,"video_dimensions":null,"video_aspect_ratio":null}],"users":[{"name":"Robert","vote_count":126,"photos":{"large":"https://graph.facebook.com/10100426995335493/picture?width=150&height=150","small":"https://graph.facebook.com/10100426995335493/picture?width=75&height=75","tiny":"https://graph.facebook.com/10100426995335493/picture?width=20&height=20","facebook":"https://graph.facebook.com/10100426995335493/picture"},"links":{"following":"/api/users/8mrz1POm/following","followers":"/api/users/8mrz1POm/followers"},"about_me":null,"twitter_id":null,"facebook_id":null,"youtube_id":null,"google_plus_id":null,"website":null,"slug":null,"issue_count":4,"is_following":null,"influence_score":0,"influence_level":0,"follower_count":0,"following_count":0,"position_count":0,"id":"8mrz1POm","partner_id":null},{"name":"bart","vote_count":666,"photos":{"large":"https://assets.causes.com/user/avatar/0emQpZxM/large_0emqpzxm-1424728285.jpg","small":"https://assets.causes.com/user/avatar/0emQpZxM/small_0emqpzxm-1424728285.jpg","tiny":"https://assets.causes.com/user/avatar/0emQpZxM/tiny_0emqpzxm-1424728285.jpg","facebook":"https://graph.facebook.com/548826295/picture"},"links":{"following":"/api/users/0emQpZxM/following","followers":"/api/users/0emQpZxM/followers"},"about_me":"\"You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time\" Abraham Lincoln / Bob Marley. Believer in the power of an informed populace using smart tools at the right time. @Countable founder.","twitter_id":"bartolah","facebook_id":"bartmyers","youtube_id":null,"google_plus_id":"","website":"","slug":"bart","issue_count":59,"is_following":null,"influence_score":76155,"influence_level":40,"follower_count":1998,"following_count":948,"position_count":55,"id":"0emQpZxM","partner_id":null},{"name":"Dicr","vote_count":221,"photos":{"large":"https://assets.causes.com/user/avatar/e9XBdlXZ/large_e9xbdlxz-1538070422.jpg","small":"https://assets.causes.com/user/avatar/e9XBdlXZ/small_e9xbdlxz-1538070422.jpg","tiny":"https://assets.causes.com/user/avatar/e9XBdlXZ/tiny_e9xbdlxz-1538070422.jpg"},"links":{"following":"/api/users/e9XBdlXZ/following","followers":"/api/users/e9XBdlXZ/followers"},"about_me":"Concerned American who wants to leave a better America for our children and a better world for all.","twitter_id":null,"facebook_id":null,"youtube_id":null,"google_plus_id":null,"website":null,"slug":"dicr","issue_count":25,"is_following":null,"influence_score":6120,"influence_level":40,"follower_count":223,"following_count":2,"position_count":159,"id":"e9XBdlXZ","partner_id":null},{"name":"Kaycek1","vote_count":122,"photos":{"large":"https://graph.facebook.com/10212743519533479/picture?width=150&height=150","small":"https://graph.facebook.com/10212743519533479/picture?width=75&height=75","tiny":"https://graph.facebook.com/10212743519533479/picture?width=20&height=20","facebook":"https://graph.facebook.com/10212743519533479/picture"},"links":{"following":"/api/users/yWj88owm/following","followers":"/api/users/yWj88owm/followers"},"about_me":"Registered Voter since 1974, former Candidate. I believe \"if you don't vote don't bitch\"! Not only is it my Constitutional Right to vote, it is my JOB as a US Citizen to vote and ensure Congress knows how I feel about the issues before them in the legislature!","twitter_id":null,"facebook_id":"","youtube_id":null,"google_plus_id":"Kaycek1@gmail.com","website":null,"slug":"kaycek1","issue_count":131,"is_following":null,"influence_score":405,"influence_level":20,"follower_count":8,"following_count":1,"position_count":111,"id":"yWj88owm","partner_id":null},{"name":"Deepstate","vote_count":66,"photos":{"large":"https://assets.causes.com/user/avatar/W1nGkqv1/large_w1ngkqv1-1548215151.jpg","small":"https://assets.causes.com/user/avatar/W1nGkqv1/small_w1ngkqv1-1548215151.jpg","tiny":"https://assets.causes.com/user/avatar/W1nGkqv1/tiny_w1ngkqv1-1548215151.jpg"},"links":{"following":"/api/users/W1nGkqv1/following","followers":"/api/users/W1nGkqv1/followers"},"about_me":"","twitter_id":null,"facebook_id":null,"youtube_id":null,"google_plus_id":null,"website":null,"slug":"deepstate","issue_count":0,"is_following":null,"influence_score":1230,"influence_level":30,"follower_count":49,"following_count":33,"position_count":59,"id":"W1nGkqv1","partner_id":null}],"article_comment":{"flagged":false,"id":505273,"body":"The FCC lying about this, as big an issue as it was/is, makes me wonder what else they liked about and why they were doing it. They should be investigated.","parent_type":"Article","parent_id":7214,"created_at":"2018-08-14T22:29:04.563Z","liked":false,"like_count":4,"links":{"self":"https://www.causes.com/comments/505273","likers":"https://www.causes.com/api/v1/likers?likeable_id=505273&likeable_type=Comment"},"article_id":7214,"shareable_image_url":"https://n.causes.com/share-images/comments/505273.png","note":{"text":"Yes","color":"#624960","stance":"yes"},"note_text":"Yes","note_color":"#624960","user_id":"8mrz1POm","liker_ids":["0emQpZxM","e9XBdlXZ","yWj88owm","W1nGkqv1"]}}

Like Causes?

Comment Liked by 4 Users