Regulatory classification

Gov Steve Bullock (D-MT) signed an executive order to protect network neutrality on Jan 22. But with questions raised about whether Gov Bullock is exceeding his authority, the governor's legal office prepared a fact sheet that it's distributing to anyone curious about potential legal challenges to the executive order.

When the Federal Communications Commission overturned the network neutrality rules in December 2017, it gave the green light to cable and other Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to make the internet start looking more like cable TV.

Gov Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) said he has signed an executive order that would require internet service providers with state contracts to abide by network neutrality rules, even though the Federal Communications Commission recently voted to repeal those rules.  The new policy aims to protect consumers by using the state's lucrative information technology contracts as leverage over internet companies. It's similar to one enacted through executive order Jan 22 by Gov Steve Bullock (D-MT) and comes as states consider how to respond to the FCC repeal. 

AT&T called on Congress to enact a national network neutrality law. Here's the reaction.

Burger King is blasting the Federal Communications Commission's decision to scrap network neutrality rules in a new ad released Jan 24, using its signature sandwich to do it.  The fast food chain posted a video illustrating what it would be like if its restaurants implemented a policy of "Whopper neutrality," in which customers had to pay more to receive their burger faster. Customers ordering Whoppers were given the option to pay for various MBPS — "Making Burgers Per Second" — rates. The slowest rate cost only $4.99, but came with a long wait time.

Government rules for the internet have been debated for nearly as long as the internet has existed, even before a professor coined the term “net neutrality” 15 years ago. The internet has changed our lives and grown beyond what anyone could have imagined. And it’s done so, for the most part, with very few—but often changing—rules. Regulators under four different presidents have taken four different approaches. Courts have overturned regulatory decisions. Regulators have reversed their predecessors.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai actually allowed the weight of public comments on the FCC's proposed changes to network neutrality regulations to sway (or confirm) his position, he seems to have given more credence to the "opinions" of spam-generating software "bots" than actual citizens, researchers have found. Leah Figueroa, lead data engineer at the data analytics software company Gravwell, presented a detailed analysis of the public comments submitted to the FCC regarding network neutrality.

The Mayor's Office of the Chief Technology Officer for the City of New York released a "Truth in Broadband” Request for Information (RFI) to establish transparency and accountability in how carriers provide internet service to consumers. The goal of the RFI is to gather input from industry and subject matter experts to help implement a system for monitoring the quality and performance of internet service providers.

[Commentary] As young policy wonks in D.C.—one working for Clinton-Gore, the other urging non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to engage tech policy—we listened to tech innovators and leaders for social justice. As we look back over those years, we see how many who inspired us in the early days decided to head off in a different direction. What precisely happened?

A coalition of conservative groups are urging Congress not to support a bill that would overturn the Federal Communications Commission’s repeal of network neutrality. Twenty-four free-market groups sent letters to lawmakers on Jan 22 calling on them to let the FCC’s decision stand, arguing that the rules stifled investment from broadband companies. “Former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s 2015 decision to classify the Internet as a public utility under Title II was a solution in search of a problem, and disrupted the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) tried and true approach,” the letter reads.