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Re:Comcast, AT&T and Verizon pose a greater surveillance ris... by Bluestrike2 on Friday April 06, 2018 @03:36PM (#16776647)
Well, yeah. But on the other hand, the complaint records aren't going to be deleted even under Pai.

The complaints likely won't go anywhere anytime soon. But when Pai's successor is working to repair the damage, there's a decent chance that one of the things they'll have to do is go through the agency's records to figure out what was ignored. Having a record of the complaint will at least give them options in the future.

So file the complaint, even if it's unlikely to matter in the short-term. :)

Re:Comcast, AT&T and Verizon pose a greater surveillance ris... by komali2 on Friday April 06, 2018 @04:16PM (#16776988)
Why wouldn't they be deleted? They were stuffed with bot complaints, FCC could remove any and say it was a bot.
Re:Comcast, AT&T and Verizon pose a greater surveillance ris... by Bluestrike2 on Friday April 06, 2018 @08:51PM (#16778786)
Federal record-keeping rules are pretty stringent. Generally speaking, you can't delete stuff. Especially important records. And public comments are a required part of federal rulemaking procedures--see 5 U.S. Code § 553(c) [0]--so they'd definitely fall into the "important" category.

In fact, the FCC's response to the bot activity was to point out that they aren't permitted to delete the comments, though a former FCC special counsel was quoted as suggesting that the FCC "might have an obligation under the Administrative Procedure Act to remove fake comments from its consideration."[1] But "removing fake comments from its consideration" isn't the same as actually deleting them, so I'd imagine that just means labeling them as "likely fake" and ignoring them in their deliberations. The same would apply to official FCC complaints. The FCC might ignore them, but they can't outright delete them without violating the law.

0. https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/5/553

1. https://www.wired.com/story/fccs-broken-comments-system-coul...