“Twenty-one states and the District of Columbia filed the first major lawsuit Tuesday to block the repeal of the Federal Communications Commission’s net neutrality rules,” The Washington Post reports. “Those rules had prohibited Internet providers from slowing down or blocking websites.”
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is leading the suit. The report notes that Schneiderman called the FCC’s repeal of net neutrality “arbitrary” and “capricious,” and said it violates federal law.
“The multi-state lawsuit comes just a day after Democrats in the Senate said they were inching closer to the votes needed for a legislative measure to help overturn the FCC’s rules,” The Post adds. “The resolution aims to reverse the FCC’s decision and block the agency from passing similar measures in the future.”
The resolution reportedly has the support of all 49 Democratic senators along with one Republican, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine.
“Tuesday’s lawsuit, which includes California, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Illinois, seized on that momentum and represents another avenue for supporters of the net neutrality rules to undo the repeal,” The Post reports. “The net neutrality rules were dismantled in a December vote led by Republican FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. Republicans had argued that the existing rules stymied industry investment, while Democrats maintained that they served as a vital consumer protection.”
This is very sad. The competition between the providers is more fierce than ever, and the consumer is the benefit. If regulation had gone in place in 2000, we would all still be using aol and yahoo. Once the government gets involved, the established companies can buy off the bureaucrats to stop innovation and competition. What companies were most in favor of net neutrality – Netflix, Google, Facebook, etc. These companies don’t want the net open to potential competition. And the concept that the carriers will limit is foolish as they will be competing for the business of the internet companies the same way they do for consumers. The reality is that an open internet allows the new ideas to come forward and continues to force the carriers to improve their service to be competitive. Would there be any incentive for ATT and Verizon to develop 5G technology if the government gets involved and starts regulating the industry. The argument is that there are areas of the country without broadband. The reason is that the cost makes no sense to deliver to those very rural areas with few people. But those people can get internet over the air from the wireless carriers and the carriers have an incentive to continue to develop even faster speeds to compete with each other. However, if the government gets involved, the regulations will hamper the innovation as the companies are required to spend time and money complying when it doesn’t make financial sense and only benefits a few companies and bureaucrats.