The State of California has agreed not to enforce its new Internet regulation law pending the resolution of a petition for review of the FCC’s Restoring Internet Freedom Order in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia and any subsequent proceedings before the U.S. Supreme Court.
All parties have requested that further proceedings in the District Court be stayed pending final resolution of that litigation. The agreement must be approved by the District Court.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai issued the following statement about the matter: “The Internet is inherently an interstate information service, as the Supreme Court has recognized, which means that only the federal government can set policy in this area. A patchwork of state laws only introduces uncertainty in the broadband marketplace that will slow investment and deployment of infrastructure and hurt consumers. I am confident that the FCC’s authority to preempt such state laws will be upheld, along with our proven market-based framework for protecting Internet openness, investment, and innovation nationwide.”
California enacts Net Neutrality law, Washington moves to block
California governor Jerry Brown signed into law the Internet Consumer Protection and Net Neutrality Act of 2018 (Senate Bill 822), which prohibits fixed and mobile Internet service providers from blocking lawful content, applications, services, or nonharmful devices, impairing or degrading lawful Internet traffic on the basis of Internet content, application, or service, or use of a nonharmful device, and specified practices relating to zero-rating. The…
Twenty-two states petition to restore Net Neutrality
Twenty-two states are petitioning a U.S. appeals court to reinstate net neutrality rules that were recently overturned by the FCC under Ajit Pai. Additional petitioners include the District of Columbia, Mozilla Corp., Public Knowledge, Open Technology Institute at New America, National Hispanic Media Coalition, NTCH, Benton Foundation, Free Press, Coalition for Internet Openness, Etsy, and INCOMPAS. FCC votes 3-2 to end Net Neutrality…