Washington State Laughs At Federal Attack On State Net Neutrality Laws

Washington State Laughs At Federal Attack On State Net Neutrality Laws

5 years ago
Anonymous $oIHRkISgaL

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20181011/07081840814/washington-state-laughs-federal-attack-state-net-neutrality-laws.shtml

In the wake of the FCC's net neutrality repeal, nearly half of the states in the union are now in the process of passing new net neutrality rules. Some states are pushing for legislation that mirrors the discarded FCC rules, while others (including Montana) have signed executive orders banning states from doing business with ISPs that engage in anti-competitive net neutrality violations.

Of course incumbent ISPs saw this coming, which is why giant ISPs like Verizon and Comcast successfully lobbied the FCC to include language in its repeal that tries to preempt state authority over ISPs entirely. But this effort to ban states from protecting consumers (not just from net neutrality violations) rests on untested legal ground, which is why some ISPs are also pushing for fake net neutrality laws they hope will preempt these state efforts.