Kevin Collier

A fierce battle over the regulation of the internet was riddled with millions of fake comments in the most prolific known instance of political impersonation in US history.

According to unnamed sources, the Justice Department is investigating whether crimes were committed when potentially millions of people’s identities were posted to the Federal Communications Commission’s website without their permission, falsely attributing to them opinions about net neutrality rules. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has delivered subpoenas to at least two organizations related to the comments.

Conservative commenters have complained that pro-network neutrality groups, including internet startups, online civil liberties organizations, and Last Week Tonight host John Oliver, have encouraged people to comment on the Federal Communications Commission’s site. But these advocates support leaving personalized comments, and there’s no evidence any of them have instructed supporters to file comments under anyone else’s name.

The FCC didn’t respond to repeated requests to specifically say whether it would filter out the astroturfed comments. Speaking to reporters after announcing a step toward rolling back existing net neutrality protections, FCC Chair Ajit Pai admitted “a tension between having an open process where it’s easy to comment and preventing questionable comments from being filed.” “Generally speaking, this agency has erred on the side of openness,” he said. Chairman Pai said the agency wouldn’t consider comments with obviously fake names, like Wonder Woman and Joseph Stalin, but declined to go further. Reached for comment after Pai’s statement, an FCC official declined to comment specifically on astroturfed comments.

The campaign contributions started small, with a handful of donations of a few thousand dollars each. In recent elections, however, it’s ballooned, with AT&T, Comcast, and Verizon each giving one of their favorite politicians in Congress between $15,000 and $20,000 every two years. All told, House Communications Subcommittee Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), author of a controversial resolution to let internet providers sell customers’ search histories to advertisers without notice or permission, has racked up well over half a million dollars in campaign donations from that industry over the course of her career. Privacy advocates are resoundingly against the resolution, designed to undo rules created by President Obama’s Federal Communications Commission in the waning days of his administration. The rules mandated internet providers like Comcast and Verizon get customers’ permission before offering sensitive search histories, like financial and health information, to marketers.

Under President Donald Trump, the public may finally get a firsthand look at what network neutrality means in practice — because if the Trump Administration is able to successfully abolish it, the internet is going to get a lot more expensive and harder to use. So what would the internet look like without net neutrality?

Internet providers would likely start using it for a business advantage, said Gigi Sohn, a recently-retired FCC senior official who advised former FCC chairman Tom Wheeler on net neutrality rules. To start, internet providers not burdened by net neutrality could begin by offering deals and exclusives for their content. Streaming video sites could balkanize even further: Hulu might cut an exclusive deal with Comcast while Netflix inked one with Verizon, meaning no one could get access to both. And if you’re one of those unlucky Americans whose neighborhood is only served by a single provider? Hope you like whichever service it struck a deal with, because that’s all you’ll be able to legally get.