Dear Editor:

I am writing regarding the Alliance for Quality Broadband Maine (AQBM) campaign that was recently waged in my town. On Friday, June 17, I noticed a new Facebook feed, “Broadband For Maine - Protect Southport.” The title caught my attention and after reading the content, I posted a comment which questioned their involvement in my island’s community vote. Over the course of the day, my post disappeared twice from this website and I reposted it twice.

My cousin (one of our town’s librarians) was a witness to this and we monitored their page because of this disturbing pattern of social media manipulation and censorship. Of interest, AQBM’s home page provides only a Portland mailing address as its identification. This raised red flags with me and I wondered who was the driving force behind this effort as no one had heard of AQBM prior to this point.

Over the course of following two weeks, Southport’s mailboxes were inundated with anti-broadband fliers and my household received six. Our community learned who was behind AQBM only after the vote due to the investigative reporting by Maine Public Radio’s Steve Mistler, “Charter-Funded Group Campaigns Against Maine Municipal Broadband, Riling Residents and ‘Partners,’” which revealed that Charter Communications (Spectrum) had financially contributed to their efforts which were executed by an in-state consulting firm, Resurgam Group.

On July 12, the online podcast Techdirt, ran a story, “Charter’s Running a Fake Consumer Group in Maine That’s Killing Community Broadband - With the Help of A Democratic Advisor.” Carl Bode reported, “It’s not that hard for a monopoly to spend a few hundred thousand (dollars) to scuttle such a vote. That’s great for them, as it saves them millions in potential competitive headaches, but it can often wind up hurting the taxpayers these bogus groups pretend to be so breathlessly concerned about.”

If an established west coast internet watchdog is raising questions publicly about efforts to derail Maine’s rural broadband projects, shouldn’t we be doing the same?

Sarah Sherman

Southport