On August 21, 2024, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced that it secured a $1 million settlement with Lingo Telecom, LLC, for violations of the FCC rules, publishing FCC DA 24-790 Consent Decree, following the filing of a Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture in case FCC 24-60 in May 2024.

Background to the settlement

The FCC stated that two days before the New Hampshire presidential primary in January 2024, 9,581 robocalls were received by potential voters which included a deepfake audio of President Joe Biden's cloned voice encouraging them not to vote in the primary election. The phone number to callers appeared to belong to a prominent local political consultant. As a result, the FCC launched an investigation into the calls with the New Hampshire Attorney General (AG), the bipartisan Anti-Robocall Multistate Litigation Task Force (the Task Force), the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ), and the Telecom's Industry Traceback Group (ITG).

The FCC, in coordination with the AG, subsequently issued a cease-and-desist from carrying out illegal robocalls in February 2024 concerning the alleged violations.

Findings of the FCC

The FCC determined that other organizations were engaged in conducting the calls and Lingo Telecom was the originating provider in the call path. Lingo identified Life Corp. as the party that transmitted the calls to Lingo. Lingo then identified Video Broadcasting Corp. as the organization that used Life's services and equipment to transmit calls at the request of its client, Steve Kramer (a political consultant who received a separate fine from the FCC for the alleged violations).

The FCC alleged that Lingo violated Section 64.6301(a) of the FCC rules by failing to fully implement the Secure Telephone Identity Revisited and Signature-based Handling of Asserted Information Using toKENs (STIR/SHAKEN) authentication framework in their internet protocol networks. The FCC highlighted that the STIR/SHAKEN framework helps protect consumers from illegal calls by enabling authenticated caller ID information to travel securely with the call itself through the entire call path, and serves as a digital identifier for each call to allow tracebacks of suspicious calls, inform robocall blocking tools, and support more reliable caller ID information for consumers.

Outcomes

In conclusion, the FCC resolved the Notice of Apparent Liability and adopted the Consent Decree, outlining that Lingo Telecom agreed to pay the $1 million settlement.

The FCC also noted that Lingo Telecom agreed to the following procedures:

• develop and implement a compliance plan designed to ensure future compliance with communications laws and the Consent Decree;
• report any non-compliance with the STIR/SHAKEN Rules within 15 calendar days after discovery of the incident;
• verify the identity and line of business of each customer and upstream provider by obtaining independent corroborating records; and
• transmit traffic only from upstream providers that have robust robocall mitigation mechanisms in place and are responsive to traceback requests.

You can read the press release here and the Consent Decree here.