The Fight for Net Neutrality

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released the final repeal order to the public on January 5. The order went into detail on how Internet Service Providers (ISP) will be placed under jurisdiction of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The FCC called the order, Restoring Internet Freedom. However, many corporations, politicians and the mass majority of the public believe that the order does quite the opposite. Since the FTC will be looking over the ISP, the providers will have the power to block websites, throttle services, and censor online content.

Senator Ed Markey released a statement on twitter stating that he got the 30 votes needed to force a second vote on the repeal order through the Congressional Review Act (CRA). The public is also pushing for representatives to go through the CRA.

Fight for the Future, a  nonprofit advocacy group in the area of digital rights, is pushing for more congressmen and women to use the CRA to vote against the repeal order by threatening to “vote out” those who don’t fight.  

Since the net neutrality repeal order is so controversial, we are expecting lawsuits against the FCC. The Internet Association (IA), a trade group representing companies such as google and facebook, announced on January 5th that they are joining in on an expected lawsuit against the net neutrality order. January 16th, there were a wave of lawsuits filed against the FCC. A lawsuit filed by 21 attorney generals claims that the Federal Communications Commission broke federal law. Free Press and Public Knowledge, public interest groups, filed their lawsuit in the United States Court of Appeals.

The Internet Association has climbed on board with all the lawsuits that have been filed so far. The FCC refused to comment on the lawsuits filed according to the New York Times.

“IA intends to act as an intervenor in judicial action against this order and, along with our member companies, will continue our push to restore strong, enforceable net neutrality protections through a legislative solution.” stated Michael Beckerman, CEO and president of IA, after the FCC released the repeal order on January 5.

Although the public, corporations, and politicians disagree with the repeal of net neutrality, it stays in place until a Congressional Review Act or one of the many lawsuits filed wins their lawsuit.