The U.S. The Department of Justice has withdrew his demand from the Trump era against California enacting its own net neutrality rules.
The news, seen by Ars Technica, means tthe federal government it is letting the state do what it wants when it comes to net neutrality, which is there line with the Biden Apromise of the administration to restore the laws at the federal level. Federal Communications Commission Acting President Jessica Rosenworcel said in a statement that she is “satisfied” with the change in events.
He California Internet Consumer Protection and Net Neutrality Act was signed into law on September 30th, 2018, in response to the FCC move to revoke net neutrality. Designed to fill the gap left by the FCC led by Ajit Pai, the law prevents Internet service providers from: blocking and slowing down legitimate traffic; phelp service prioritization; getting paid withI was evaluating some content in one category, but not all content in that category (looking at you, AT&T); and not be transparent about network management practices, performance, and business terms.
Hours after the law went into effect, the Trump-era DOJ filed a lawsuit against California, alleging that states have no jurisdiction over the Internet. As a result, California agreed not to enforce the law in exchange for the DOJ not moving forward with the lawsuit. In August last year, the Trump administration resumed its lawsuit against California, but the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that the FCC could not force states to maintain the repeal of net neutrality:Although he said the FCC could repeal its own net neutrality rules, unfortunately. The court confirmed the claim that broadband is not a telecommunications service, somehow unconvinced by the millions of people working and attending school from home due to the covid-19 pandemic.
Now that the lawsuit has been formally dismissed, that leaves California in the position of enforcing the law it passed two years ago.
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But there is another obstacle: ISPs. Several major lobbyists representing some of the largest telecommunications companies in the United States: Comcast, Charter, AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint, Cox, Frontier and CenturyLink: presented a file separate demand against the state in October 2018, calling the act an example of “unconstitutional state regulation” and undermining federal law. Pressure groups modified their demand in August last year.
It is unclear what or what legal precedence this argument holds, as the DOJ has formally withdrawn its lawsuit against California. And with Rosenworcel at the helm of the FCC, it is entirely possible that net neutrality will be restored. All this combined would seem to make the argument of broadband lobbyists debatable. However, President Biden should nominate a new Democratic commissioner and approve that Senate nomination to break the 2-2 deadlock between Democrats and Republicans in the FCC.