FCC probes San Francisco agency for disrupting cell service

The Federal Communications Commission is looking into a San Francisco transit agency for blocking cellphone service during a protest last week.

The Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system shut off the transmitters that allow for cellphone reception in four underground stations last Thursday.

The move was aimed at disrupting a protest over a fatal police shooting. According to BART, service outside the stations was not affected.

“Any time communications services are interrupted, we seek to assess the situation,” FCC spokesman Neil Grace said. “We are continuing to collect information about BART’s actions and will be taking steps to hear from stakeholders about the important issues those actions raised, including protecting public safety and ensuring the availability of communications networks.”

On Sunday, hacker group Anonymous attacked MyBART.org in retaliation for the cellphone disruption. They argued the disruption was a violation of civil liberties. 

The hackers defaced the website with their logos and released personal contact information of the site’s users. 

BART did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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