California Shakes Off ISP Lobbyists, Embraces Real Net Neutrality

California Shakes Off ISP Lobbyists, Embraces Real Net Neutrality

6 years ago
Anonymous $oIHRkISgaL

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180903/08162040573/california-shakes-off-isp-lobbyists-embraces-real-net-neutrality.shtml

Despite a rocky start, California has shaken off the lobbying influence of Comcast, AT&T and Verizon and passed meaningful net neutrality protections for the state's broadband residents. California's SB822, which pretty closely mirrors the FCC's discarded 2015 rules, almost had its most important parts stripped away courtesy of some early committee gamesmanship by AT&T. When that failed, ISP-connected lobbying and influence orgs tried to scare voters away from the effort by making misleading robocalls to state senior citizens insisting the bill would dramatically raise their phone bills.

Given the continued, overwhelming and bipartisan support for net neutrality, those efforts didn't work. SB822, which the EFF has called the "gold standard" for state-level rules, passed the California Assembly last Thursday, then managed to nab the necessary votes in the State Senate last Friday. It's now headed to the desk of California Governor Jerry Brown for signing: