California’s net neutrality law is broadband companies’ worst nightmare

In 2017, the broadband industry appeared to win its battle against net neutrality. Under the Trump administration, the US Federal Communications Commission rolled back rules that barred internet service providers from blocking or slowing down traffic to certain websites or charging some sites a fee for preferential treatment. Net neutrality was, effectively, dead. But the regulatory change turned out to be a Pyrrhic victory for telecom companies. The FCC’s decision opened the door for states to pass their own laws managing the internet. On Feb. 23, a federal judge paved the way for California to do just that: The state can now implement its 2018 net neutrality law, which reinstates all the former FCC net neutrality rules within California. For the telecoms, the trouble started the moment they won their fight before the FCC in 2017. The industry didn’t just get the agency to repeal its net neutrality rules—it convinced the FCC to rule that it never had the authority to create net neutrality regulations in the first place. That left the agency powerless to stop states from filling in the vacuum with their own legislation. When the FCC tried to overrule the states’ laws, the Washington DC court of appeals declared that if the agency had no power to make net neutrality rules, it also had no power to invalidate state’s rules.