Regulatory classification

[Commentary] Communities across the United States are considering strategies to protect residents’ access to information and their right to privacy.

[Commentary] The Restoring Internet Freedom order was a triumph of ideology over sense, sacrificing the interests of internet users and innovators on the altar of deregulatory purity. Some leading broadband providers, recognizing that they got more from the FCC than they’d bargained for, pledged never to use their newfound freedom to interfere online. But that’s not enough. Ideally, Congress would do something it should have done a decade ago: update federal communications law to give the FCC a mandate and clear authority to protect net neutrality.

[Commentary] There were a lot of rational reasons that Republicans kept a laserlike focus on Obamacare from 2010 to 2016. And  there was a lesson Democrats could take from that. Find an intractable issue that excites the base, and push forward on it, no matter what. They may have found that issue — net neutrality. There’s a legislative tool called the Congressional Review Act, that gives Congress the right to overturn regulations put into effect by the executive branch within 60 working days of the rule being finalized.

[Commentary] While the repeal of network neutrality threatens democracy, by putting free expression at the discretion of a few large companies that can slow down or block what you see or read, the Federal Communications Commission order added a little-noticed but much more direct attack on our ability to make democratic choices about internet access: The agency invoked its power to preempt state laws to block states from setting their own rules about net neutrality. Legislators and governors in several large states are exploring whether there are ways to get around that preemption, and expe

Mozilla filed a petition in federal court in Washington, DC, against the Federal Communications Commission for its recent decision to overturn the 2015 Open Internet Order. It relies on the core principle of net neutrality (that all internet traffic be treated equally) to exist. If that principle is removed — with only some content and services available or with roadblocks inserted by ISPs to throttle or control certain services — the value and impact of that resource can be impaired or destroyed. Ending net neutrality could end the internet as we know it.

New America's Open Technology Institute became one of the first parties to challenge the Federal Communications Commission’s harmful order repealing the net neutrality rules by filing a protective petition for review in the DC Circuit. OTI filed the protective petition in an abundance of caution to ensure that, if a lottery is held determining the proper venue for the case at this stage, the DC Circuit is included in the selection process. 

The following statement can be attributed to Sarah Morris, Director of Open Internet Policy at the Open Technology Institute:

Public Knowledge filed a protective petition in the Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit to urge the court to review the Federal Communications Commission’s rollback of net neutrality rules. 

The following statement can be attributed to John Bergmayer, Senior Counsel at Public Knowledge:

A recent decision by the Federal Communications Commission to repeal net neutrality, which are rules designed to prevent the selective blocking or slowing of websites, has wide-ranging implications for China, which never believed in net neutrality and banned hundreds of foreign websites. The decision could result in a major trade war involving Chinese telecom and Internet companies, which are interested in accessing the US market. The move will allow American telecom service providers to charge differential prices for various services and even examine the data of their customers.

Free Press filed a petition for review of the Federal Communications Commission’s unpopular Dec. 14 order that repealed the agency’s Net Neutrality rules and reversed the Title II “telecommunications services” classification of broadband-internet access. Free Press filed its challenge in the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals in Massachusetts, the state where the organization’s main office is based. As the papers submitted to the court make clear, today’s filing is preliminary and protective in nature. The FCC released its Net Neutrality decision on Jan. 4.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman led a coalition of 22 Attorneys General in filing a multistate lawsuit to block the Federal Communications Commission’s illegal rollback of net neutrality.