Network Neutrality

Former Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler says that there was no 2014 cyberattack meant to overwhelm the agency's comment system during the net neutrality debate, as claimed by a former agency IT official in emails recently published by Gizmodo. The Gizmodo story says that in 2017, after the agency claimed to have experienced a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) taking down its comment system, agency IT chief David Bray told the media that there had been a similar attack in 2014 — and that Wheeler had decided to keep the matter quiet for fear of copycat attacks. 

Network neutrality skeptics sought to sound the alarm during a TechFreedom Hill briefing on the Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution to undo the Federal Communications Commission’s repeal of Obama-era open internet rules. The measure passed the Senate on a 52-47 vote, but still needs 218 backers to force a vote in the House.

States are pushing their own net neutrality laws and rules in defiance of the Federal Communications Commission’s repeal, heightening the possibility that supporters will be waging another legal battle over the popular Obama-era regulations. Washington and Oregon have already passed their own laws to fill the void left by the FCC’s repeal, and California appears to be close behind after the state Senate passed a net neutrality bill on May 30.

Absent intervention by Congress or the courts, the Federal Communication Commission’s net neutrality regulations, which prevent internet service providers like Verizon and Comcast from establishing tiered pricing and levels of access to the internet, will expire on June 11. But the rules, which are supported by big majorities of Americans in both parties, aren’t going down without a fight. Framing arguments on both sides of the debate are different metaphors about what the internet really is. Is the internet a grocery store, for instance, or more like a utility?

If the California network neutrality bill passes through Assembly, the state’s size and influence on the market might make it the new broadband standard nationwide. The bill, SB 822, is one of the most comprehensive measures any state has put forward in the six months following the FCC’s vote to roll back the original Obama-era regulations.

[Commentary] At the moment, 36 states and Washington (DC) have introduced efforts to keep network neutrality. These efforts range from introducing legislation to filing lawsuits. At the moment, it’s too early to tell if these suits will be successful and if states will be allowed to implement their own rules for broadband. Now, let’s say these suits were to fail, and the repeal of net neutrality continued to move forward as planned. What impact would this have on consumers? 

[Commentary] In a report on the topic, the analysts at New Street Research laid out a pretty compelling argument for how ISPs will be able to cash in on real-time sports betting by providing high-speed links to gamblers looking for an edge. “Placing a bet does not require a lot of bandwidth.

AT&T has given up its years-long quest to cripple the Federal Trade Commission's authority to regulate broadband providers. Just weeks ago, AT&T said it intended to appeal its loss in the case to the US Supreme Court before a deadline of May 29. But May 31, AT&T informed court officials that it has decided not to file a petition to the Supreme Court and did not ask for a deadline extension.

The California State Senate approved a network neutrality bill that has been called the “gold standard” of such bills in the nation, as states grapple with a controversial repeal of Obama-era federal rules meant to ensure an open internet.

You might not be hearing much from big tech on net neutrality lately. But the likes of Google and Facebook are still invested in the fight behind the scenes. The Internet Association joined a legal battle to overturn the Federal Communications Commission's decision to revoke the Obama-era rules, as did the industry group Incompas, which includes smaller telecommunications companies as well as tech companies including Facebook, Netflix, Microsoft, and Twitter.