FCC Fabricated DDoS Attack During Net-Neutrality Fight: Reason Roundup
Plus: Internet companies cancel Alex Jones and Trump is "asking for WORLD PEACE, nothing less!"
No net-neutrality rooted attack on FCC servers. For a second time, David Bray, former chief information officer for the Federal Communication Commission (FCC), seems to have been caught fabricating stories about distributed denial-of-service attacks (DDoS) on FCC servers. Bray's most recent fable came in May 2017, as John Oliver of HBO's Last Week Tonight was asking viewers to flood FCC comments with support for "net neutrality" legislation, and is the subject of an upcoming Office of Inspector General's report.
"Bray had previously leaked baseless claims that the FCC was struck by a cyberattack in 2014," Gizmodo discovered.
The inspector general's report has not yet been made public, but FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel have both commented on its contents.
"The Inspector General Report tells us what we knew all along: the FCC's claim that it was the victim of a DDoS attack during the net neutrality proceeding is bogus," said Rosenworcel. Here's her spin:
What happened instead is obvious—millions of Americans overwhelmed our online system because they wanted to tell us how important internet openness is to them and how distressed they were to see the FCC roll back their rights.
And here's Pai's:
With respect to the report's findings, I am deeply disappointed that the FCC's former Chief Information Officer (CIO), who was hired by the prior Administration and is no longer with the Commission, provided inaccurate information about this incident to me, my office, Congress, and the American people. This is completely unacceptable.
"On the other hand," Pai continued,
I'm pleased that this report debunks the conspiracy theory that my office or I had any knowledge that the information provided by the former CIO was inaccurate and was allowing that inaccurate information to be disseminated for political purposes. Indeed, as the report documents, on the morning of May 8, it was the former CIO who informed my office that 'some external folks attempted to send high traffic in an attempt to tie-up the server from responding to others, which unfortunately makes it appear unavailable to everyone attempting to get through the queue.' In response, the Commission's Chief of Staff, who works in my office, asked if the then-CIO was confident that the incident wasn't caused by a number of individuals 'attempting to comment at the same time . . . but rather some external folks deliberately trying to tie-up the server.' In response to this direct inquiry, the former CIO told my office: 'Yes, we're 99.9% confident this was external folks deliberately trying to tie-up the server to prevent others from commenting and/or create a spectacle.'
FREE MINDS
Internet companies cancel Alex Jones. On Monday, Facebook permanently banned the Jones-helmed website Infowars from the platform, YouTube removed all Infowars videos, and Apple deleted all Infowars podcasts from its store. A few perspectives…
Washington sees in Silicon Valley a chance to control speech in a way never before possible under the 1st Amendment and to roll back the clock to a pre-internet age of media gatekeepers. The way to achieve this is by continually leveraging the threat of regulation. https://t.co/xHTW5HQ5M6
— Zach Weissmueller (@TheAbridgedZach) August 7, 2018
Who said anything about private? The constitution guarantees the freedom to speak one's mind, not the right to a Facebook page. Alex Jones can scream in his basement all he wants. Nobody is obligated to give him a platform.
— Ben Grimes ? (@softreeds) August 7, 2018
Whether you hate Alex Jones is beside the point. Do you love the fact a handful of tech monopolists have the power to simultaneously purge him from the internet?
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) August 6, 2018
Alex Jones interviewed politicians, activists, journalists, and all kinds of public figures over the years. Now those archives are simply gone. Too bad for researchers and historians. It was more important that we be protected from his bad speech
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) August 7, 2018
First they came for Alex Jones, and I did not speak out
Because "they" were individual people and entities
And they "came for" him by making their own choices about how to exercise their own speech and association
And that's liberty, not tyranny
— QHatSecretMessages (@Popehat) August 6, 2018
1st amendment evangelists whine about private companies choosing to terminate the account of one who has repeatedly violated their terms. But the strangest rationalization is that "FB is a major source of where ppl get info", as if that exempts them from freedom of association.
— Jason Keisling (@jasonkeisling) August 6, 2018
There was Alex Jones content on YouPorn? I have questions. https://t.co/7Wuxriz1Ue
— Christoph (@Halalcoholism) August 7, 2018
FREE MARKETS
Iran "faces a choice," said President Trump in a Monday statement announcing that the U.S. would reimpose economic sanctions on Iran, after lifting them in 2015. The country can "either change its threatening, destabilizing behavior and reintegrate with the global economy, or continue down a path of economic isolation," said Trump.
The Iran sanctions have officially been cast. These are the most biting sanctions ever imposed, and in November they ratchet up to yet another level. Anyone doing business with Iran will NOT be doing business with the United States. I am asking for WORLD PEACE, nothing less!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 7, 2018
QUICK HITS
- A man who opened fire at a Florida park Saturday was thwarted with a shot from an armed bystander in the crowd.
- A man in federal custody who was swept up in a slaughterhouse immigration raid went blind in one eye after authorities refused to provide him with diabetes medication.
- Reihan Salam tackles "the utility of white bashing."
- Trump is losing his Hollywood Walk of Fame star.
- The Department of Defense tells employees to turn off their Fitbits.
- Brazil is closing its borders to refugees from neighboring and crisis-torn Venezuela.
- There is only one company in the U.S. that makes paper straws, and it has become mighty popular as ill-conceived plastic-straw bans have been taking hold.
- Civil asset forfeiture means cops "accuse your stuff of a crime, and you as the owner have to prove that your stuff is innocent."
- American Express has pulled all ads from Sky News over an interview that it didn't like.
- Facebook has been pitching big banks on "potential offerings it could host for bank customers on Facebook Messenger."
"I was the magazine's poetry editor for 35 years. Never once did we apologize for publishing a poem."https://t.co/5KCjIMbYR5
— Jesse Singal (@jessesingal) August 6, 2018