California net neutrality bill moves forward, despite loss of some provisions

After a week of legislative setbacks and online acrimony, a bill to restore Obama-era net neutrality protections in California has moved a step forward. Members of the California State Assembly Privacy and Consumer Protection Committee voted 8-2 to move SB822 on to its next stop, the Assembly Appropriations Committee, after more than an hour of comment from internet service providers and community organizations at the Capitol. State Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) the bill’s author, said he supported the effort to move the bill on despite amendments made recently that he said “eviscerated” protections for internet users, including young, low-income and minority communities with limited internet access.  Wiener warned the privacy committee that he has no intention to pass a “fake” net neutrality bill if he’s unable to restore the bill’s original protections, including prohibiting zero-rating, a practice wherein providers exempt favored websites and apps from data caps; prohibiting blocking, speeding up or slowing down websites; and charging websites unreasonable amounts for access to an internet service provider’s customers. “Consumers are not protected, small businesses are not protected and they will get stomped out of existence,” Wiener said. “It is the next generation of Netflix and Google that are going to get destroyed with the lack of net neutrality.” If the bill maintains its current language and does not get amended according to his recommendations, Wiener said he will withdraw his legislation.