California State Senate Passes Net Neutrality Resolution

The California State Senate has passed a resolution, pushing back against the FCC in an effort to re-instate Net Neutrality. 

Senate President pro Tempore Kevin de Leon told colleagues that plenty of people disagree with last year's decision by the Federal Communications Commission

"Including strong majorities of both Democrats, as well as Republicans. It gives internet service providers unfettered power to sabotage the competition, by throttling the internet speeds for competing content."

In 2015, the FCC voted to classify consumer broadband service as a public utility under Title II Order of the 1934 Communications Act. Trump's head of the FCC, Ajit Pai, rolled those protections back in a vote last December, setting the stage for a major fight between Internet Service Providers and advocates for net neutrality. 

Critics said the FCC's rollback of net neutrality rules could lead to different 'speed lanes' for certain content creators, with higher prices leading to faster speeds. 

Now, states are fighting back against the rollback, with the California State Senate firing off the latest round in the war for net neutrality. The State Senate's resolution encourages Congress to make Net Neutrality law through its legislative process. 

"It urges the FCC to re-instate its 2015 Open Internet Order. It urges the United States Congress to intervene to protect net neutrality and set those principles in statute," de Leon told a group of lawmakers. 

Republicans say the repeal of net neutrality rules isn't as dire as Democrats suggest, and that the internet was fine before the original vote in 2015.

Until the ruling in 2015, there were no legal protections requiring net neutrality. 

California isn't the only state working to re-instate internet protections - Oregon's Majority Leader Jennifer Williamson announced her intention to restore net neutrality with her bill, H.B. 4155, which would require any ISP that receives funds from the state to adhere to net neutrality principles. 

Photo: Getty Images


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