Report: Anti-Net Neutrality Robocalls in California Hit Seniors

With the California State Assembly set to debate and possibly vote Tuesday on what would be the country’s strongest net neutrality legislation, big internet service providers are resorting to questionable tactics to put the kibosh on the bill, according to a report by the technology news site Motherboard. Specifically, a group with financial  ties to AT&T recently began targeting California senior citizens with a “robocall”—that is, a prerecorded, automated phone message—claiming that passage of the net neutrality bill, SB 822, would cause cell phone rates to go up, and data speeds to slow down. The tech news site Ars Technica reported that both AT&T as well as fellow internet service giant Verizon have denied being linked to or behind the robocalls.  The Republican-controlled FCC repealed Obama-era net neutrality rules effective on June 11 of this year. But the rules had been in effect for almost exactly three years, since June of 2015, and cell phone bills overall did not rise—in fact, they went down, according to a Wall Street Journal report last year. Nor did wireless data speeds slow during that three-year period. On the contrary, according to a report by the wireless industry trade association CTIA, download speeds increased by up to 40 percent from 2015 to 2017—despite the fact that mobile networks transmitted 35 times more data in 2016 than they did in 2010. But the robocall sponsored by the lobbying group Civil Justice Association of California simply ignores those facts. “Your Assembly member will be voting on a proposal by San Francisco politicians that could increase your cellphone bill by $30 a month and slow down your data,” the prerecorded message says. “We can't afford higher cell phone bills. We can't afford slower data. We can't afford Senate Bill 822.” Hear a recording of the anti-net neutrality robocall at this link.  San Francisco State Senator Scott Wiener, the chief sponsor of SB 822, lashed out against the deceptive robocall on his Twitter account. “We’re now dealing with a straight-up misinformation campaign on our #NetNeutrality bill, #SB822,” Wiener wrote. “Industry robo-calls to seniors falsely telling them that protecting net neutrality will increase their phone bills by $30. Scaring seniors with lies about their financial security? Gross.” Apple Computer belongs to the CJAC Board of Directors, but Apple has opposed the repeal of net neutrality rules. Photo by Michael Rivera / Wikimedia Commons