Washington State Laughs In The Face Of FCC Attempts To Ban States From Protecting Net Neutrality

Washington State Laughs In The Face Of FCC Attempts To Ban States From Protecting Net Neutrality

6 years ago
Anonymous $gcegwZ91io

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180228/09525039328/washington-state-laughs-face-fcc-attempts-to-ban-states-protecting-net-neutrality.shtml

In the wake of the FCC's net neutrality repeal, nearly half 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 both 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.