Koch-backed group steals constituent identities to write Congress *against* Net Neutrality

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Many of the critical statements from American Commitment’s past email petitions began arriving in lawmakers’ inboxes en masse earlier this month. To solicit support, the group used display ads that asked visitors to sound off against the FCC’s net neutrality rules. Those messages were then delivered March 5-10 in the House and March 8-15 in the Senate, according to Kerpen.

All of those messages — mostly pre-written by American Commitment — slammed the FCC for treating the Internet like a public utility. Some of the emails called on Congress to “pass language in an upcoming must-pass vehicle that blocks any move by the FCC” to continue down its path. Another derided net neutrality supporters as “extremists.” A third criticized Obama for having “publicly instructed the FCC, which is supposed to be an independent agency, to reduce the Internet to a government-controlled utility.”

Speier’s office noted the similar emails and then calculated that about 98 percent of the messages had come from constituents that her office had never heard from before. The congresswoman’s team set about trying to reply to some senders, and a few of the constituents replied that they had never signed up to send emails criticizing net neutrality.

Lockheed also flagged the notes, saying in its memo that the “source of these messages … is not clearly/currently identified.” In later updates to lawmakers, the company said it still hadn’t identified the source, but had set up a filter to capture the messages.

“This is identity theft, but instead of impersonating for financial gain, the originators of this theft are striking at the heart of our representative democracy,” Speier said.

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http://www.politico.com/story/2015/03/net-neutrality-email-american-commitment-116553.html