Twenty-seven Senators are urging the Federal Communications Commission to postpone its vote on repealing net neutrality rules.
The group is led by Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., and includes Sens. Charles Schumer, D.N.Y., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. The senators have sent a letter to Ajit Pai, the FCC chairman, asking for the delay.
The senators are concerned that the agency’s public comment record on the issue may have been tampered with.
"If fact, there is good reason to believe that the record may be replete with fake or fraudulent comments suggesting that your proposal is fundamentally flawed,” the letter said.
"Without additional information about the alleged anomalies surrounding the public records, the FCC cannot conduct a thorough and fair evaluation of the public’s view on this topic, and should not move forward with a vote on Dec. 14, 2017."
The FCC received nearly 22 million comments when it asked for public input on the plan to scrap the rules that prevent internet service providers from discriminating against certain content, The Hill reported.
"A transparent and open process is vitally important to how the FCC functions,” the senators’ letter said.
The call for a delay came after New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman revealed on Medium that his office has been investigating “who perpetrated a massive scheme to corrupt the FCC’s notice and comment process through the misuse of enormous numbers of real New Yorkers’ and other Americans’ identities.”