U.S. Federal Communications Commission chair Jessica Rosenworcel plans to begin an effort to reinstate landmark net neutrality rules rescinded under then-President Donald Trump, sources briefed on the matter said Monday.

cross-posted from: https://dubvee.org/post/205595

WASHINGTON, Sept 25 (Reuters) - U.S. Federal Communications Commission chair Jessica Rosenworcel plans to begin an effort to reinstate landmark net neutrality rules rescinded under then-President Donald Trump, sources briefed on the matter said Monday.

The move comes after Democrats took majority control of the five-member FCC on Monday for the first time since President Joe Biden took office in January 2021 when new FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez was sworn in.

The FCC is set to take an initial vote on the net neutrality proposal in October, the sources added.

In July 2021, Biden signed an executive order encouraging the FCC to reinstate net neutrality rules adopted under Democratic then-President Barack Obama in 2015.

The FCC voted in 2017 to reverse the rules that barred internet service providers from blocking or throttling traffic, or offering paid fast lanes, also known as paid prioritization. Days before the 2020 presidential election, the FCC voted to maintain the reversal.

Rosenworcel denounced the repeal in 2017 saying it put the FCC “on the wrong side of history, the wrong side of the law, and the wrong side of the American public.”

She plans a speech to outline her plans on Tuesday, the sources added. A spokesperson for Rosenworcel declined to comment.

In 2022, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 3-0 that the 2017 decision by the FCC to reverse federal net neutrality protections could not bar state action, rejecting a challenge from telecom and broad industry groups to block California’s net neutrality law. Industry groups abandoned further legal challenges in May 2022.

The appeals court said that since the FCC reclassified internet services in 2017 as more lightly regulated information services, the commission “no longer has the authority to regulate in the same manner that it had when these services were classified as telecommunications services.”

Days after Biden took office, the U.S. Justice Department withdrew its Trump-era legal challenge to California’s state net neutrality law.

  • @n2burns@lemmy.ca
    8•9 months ago

    I disagree.

    1. Even if this change is only temporary, it still improves things for that time.
    2. Businesses don’t like having to change back and forth based on Federal policy. Even if congress can’t pass net neutrality, many businesses will give up if they have to adjust every 4-8 years.

    While imperfect, it’s far from irrelevant.

    • JWBananasEnglish
      1•9 months ago

      Even if this change is only temporary, it still improves things for that time.

      That could very well not be the case. Major policy changes like these require a lot of preparation and are often scheduled to actually take effect on a far future date. So it could end up getting reverted again before it even happens.

    • Endorkend
      1•9 months ago

      Businesses don’t like having to change back and forth based on Federal policy. Even if congress can’t pass net neutrality, many businesses will give up if they have to adjust every 4-8 years.

      So you agree …

      • @n2burns@lemmy.ca
        2•9 months ago

        I don’t think I’m agreeing. I was saying many businesses will give up and just follow net neutrality all the time, instead of changing constantly with new regulations.

        • Endorkend
          3•9 months ago

          Corporations will not follow net neutrality until they have to and they will change back to not following net neutrality the second they think they can while they’ll drag out the implementation of net neutrality rules in court as long as they can in the hopes they get canceled first.

          What planet do you live on where any corporation will ever do the good thing when they aren’t forced to do so.

          • @n2burns@lemmy.ca
            2•9 months ago

            I live on the planet where corporations will do the right thing when it’s cheaper. Making drastic changes to infrastructure every 4-8 years isn’t cheap, and some (though not all) will decide it’s not worth the hassle and bad publicity.