Network Neutrality

Sens Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Kamala Harris (D-CA) called on the Federal Communications Commission, Verizon, Sprint, AT&T, and T-Mobile to guarantee service to first responders during emergencies and clarify policies regarding unlimited data plans. During the Mendocino Complex Fire, Verizon restricted data speeds for the Santa Clara Fire Department (SCFD), despite the fact the department had purchased an unlimited data plan.

Congressional and state actions to preserve strong net neutrality protections have bipartisan support—while the Federal Communications Commission’s repeal had bipartisan opposition. Put another way, net neutrality is, and has always been, a bipartisan issue, and more Republicans, in particular, should follow suit. Here’s why:

During his second day of Senate confirmation hearings, Judge Brett Kavanaugh defended his dissent in a federal court decision that upheld the Federal Communications Commission's 2015 net neutrality rules. Pressed by Sen Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) why he disagreed with the rest of his colleagues on the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit that the Federal Communications Commission was within its authority to create the rules, Judge Kavanaugh said he was simply following legal precedent and wasn't looking to strip the agency of its power.

The largest US telecommunication companies are slowing internet traffic to and from popular apps like YouTube and Netflix, according to new research from Northeastern University and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. The researchers used a smartphone app called Wehe, downloaded by about 100,000 consumers, to monitor which mobile services are being throttled when and by whom, in what likely is the single largest running study of its kind. Among US wireless carriers, YouTube is the No. 1 target of throttling, where data speeds are slowed, according to the data.

Most critiques of the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh, President Donald Trump’s nominee to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy on the Supreme Court, focus on his positions on a woman’s right to choose, his extreme deference to presidential power, or his views on sensible gun laws.

The Senate formally kicks off the confirmation battle over Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh with lawmakers poised to grill the judge for several days on a host of issues. Key among them for the tech and telecom crowd: Kavanaugh’s dissenting opinion in a 2017 ruling that upheld the Obama-era net neutrality rules.

Internet service providers could not stop the California Legislature from passing tough state net neutrality rules. But they did manage to yank out most of the rules’ teeth. 

The California Senate voted on Aug 31 to approve the toughest state-level net neutrality bill in the US, one day after the California Assembly took the same action. The bill would prohibit Internet service providers from blocking or throttling lawful traffic and from requiring fees from websites or online services to deliver or prioritize their traffic to consumers. The bill would also ban paid data cap exemptions (so-called "zero-rating").

Senator Edward Markey (D-MA) and Congresswoman Anna Eshoo (D-CA-18) sent a letter to the Federal Communications Commission demanding an explanation for reports that Verizon throttled the Santa Clara County Fire Department’s ‘unlimited’ data plan during the Mendocino Complex Fire. In their letter, the lawmakers ask what steps the FCC is taking to address such critical threats to public safety in the wake its decision to repeal strong net neutrality rules.

It’s been a tough fight, with one near-fatal stumble, but California’s assembly just passed what are undoubtedly the strictest protections for net neutrality in the country–if not the world. After what supporters hope will be a perfunctory re-vote in the state Senate, the bill will go to Gov Jerry Brown (D-CA), who has 30 days to sign or veto it.