Democrat asks why FCC is hiding ISPs’ answers to net neutrality complaints

With a vote to eliminate net neutrality rules scheduled for December 14, the Federal Communications Commission apparently still hasn't released thousands of documents containing the responses ISPs made to net neutrality complaints.

The National Hispanic Media Coalition (NHMC) filed a Freedom of Information Act (FoIA) request in May of this year for tens of thousands of net neutrality complaints that Internet users filed against their ISPs and for the ISPs' responses to those complaints. The FCC initially stalled in releasing all of the complaints, saying it would be too "burdensome" for FCC staff. The commission eventually complied with some portions of the request and released more than 60,000 pages worth of consumer complaints.

But the ISPs' responses to consumer complaints are mostly still hidden from public view. FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, a Democrat who wants to keep net neutrality rules, asked why the FCC's Republican majority hasn't released all the documents:

The NHMC has made the documents it obtained from the FCC public at this webpage, but the FCC itself hasn't published them on its own website or included them in the net neutrality docket. (Correction: The FCC has posted the documents on its website, though it still hasn't included them in the docket for the net neutrality repeal proceeding.)

While the FCC said it has 18,000 carrier responses to net neutrality complaints, the NHMC says it has only received 823 pages worth. The carrier responses are generally one or two pages long.

"The FCC has not produced any additional documents since we filed an Application for Review [on November 14]," NHMC Special Policy Advisor Gloria Tristani told Ars today. Besides carrier responses, "we are missing other documents as well, such as attachments to consumer complaints, consumer rebuttals, etc." The FCC has not explained why it didn't provide those documents, according to the NHMC.

We contacted Pai's office about the FoIA today and will update this story if we get a response. Further Reading FCC explains why public support for net neutrality won’t stop repeal

The NHMC and other net neutrality advocates say the FCC should have conducted a detailed analysis of net neutrality complaints and resolutions before proceeding with its repeal. Instead, Pai's anti-net neutrality proposal says that "in most instances, [the complaints] have not been verified," without providing much analysis.

[T]he majority of these informal complaints do not allege conduct implicating the Open Internet rules. Of the complaints that do discuss ISPs, they often allege frustration with a person or entity, but do not allege wrongdoing under the Open Internet rules. Further, we are not required to resolve all of these informal complaints before proceeding with a rulemaking. Since we do not rely on these informal complaints as the basis for the decisions we make today, we do not have an obligation to incorporate them into the record.

As Pai noted, the complaints often describe problems that aren't strictly violations of net neutrality rules. However, the net neutrality order in February 2015 also reclassified broadband providers as common carriers, giving consumers the right to complain about a wider range of "unjust" or "unreasonable" prices and practices.

The December 14 vote to eliminate the net neutrality rules would also get rid of those consumer protections that go beyond the core net neutrality prohibitions on blocking, throttling, and paid prioritization.

Democratic Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel today criticized the FCC majority for not including 50,000 consumer complaints in the record. The public comment system that allows anyone to submit an opinion on the anti-net neutrality plan has also been a mess, Rosenworcel said.

"Approximately a million comments may have fraudulently used the names of real people, including thousands that New York Attorney General [Eric Schneiderman] is now investigating," she said after a joint press conference with Schneiderman.

The FCC has also "held zero public hearings" on the repeal and "knowingly maintained a system that has already been corrupted and is susceptible to abuse," she said.

Pai has claimed repeatedly that he is making the FCC's "operations more transparent" than his predecessors did.

Schneiderman says that the FCC has stonewalled his investigation into fraud in the public comments. Many Americans' names have been used without their consent in public comments, and Schneiderman has set up a webpage where people can check if they've been impersonated.

Twenty-eight Democratic senators led by Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire wrote to Pai today, and their letter also refers to the "50,000 consumer complaints [that] seem to have been excluded from the public record in this proceeding." In addition, "there is good reason to believe that the record may be replete with fake or fraudulent comments," they wrote. Further Reading FCC won’t delay vote, says net neutrality supporters are “desperate”

"Without additional information about the alleged anomalies surrounding the public record, the FCC cannot conduct a thorough and fair evaluation of the public's views on this topic and should not move forward with a vote on December 14, 2017," the senators wrote.

But earlier today, a spokesperson for Pai said the vote will be held as scheduled and that net neutrality supporters "are becoming more desperate by the day."