Internet Democracy Is Great … in Theory. Just Ask the FCC

The Federal Communications Commission says it wants to hear from you about the future of net neutrality. The promise of digital democracy goes something Or, if you're especially interested in sounding off on net neutrality, welcome to the FCC's website. Never Neutral In 2014, comedian and Last Week Tonight host John Oliver did the seemingly unthinkable: He helped turn net neutrality into a rousing mainstream issue. More recently, observers noticed that more than 128,000 of the 735,000 comments received so far were filed with identical text complaining that the FCC's net neutrality rules are "smothering innovation, damaging the American economy and obstructing job creation." The Verge discovered that the names and addresses used for this flood of cloned comments appear to have come from a leaked spam database known as Special K. The text was taken from a conservative group called the Center for Individual Freedom, which encouraged its members to send a form letter to the FCC but denies spamming the site.