Update: Mozilla Will Re-File Suit Against FCC to Protect Net Neutrality

Authored by blog.mozilla.org and submitted by mvea

Protecting net neutrality is core to the internet and crucial for people’s jobs and everyday lives. It is imperative that all internet traffic be treated equally, without discrimination against content or type of traffic — that’s the how the internet was built and what has made it one of the greatest inventions of all time.

Last month, Mozilla filed a petition against the Federal Communications Commission for its disappointing decision to overturn the 2015 Open Internet Order because we believe it violates federal law and harms internet users and innovators.

We said that we believed the filing date should be later (while the timing seemed clear in the December 2017 draft order from the FCC, federal law is more ambiguous). We urged the FCC to determine the later date was appropriate, but we filed on January 16 because we are not taking any chances with an issue of this importance.

On Friday, the FCC filed to dismiss this suit and require us to refile after the order has been published in the Federal Register, as we had anticipated.

We will always fight to protect the open internet and will continue to challenge the FCC’s decision to destroy net neutrality in the courts, in Congress, and with our allies and internet users.

The FCC’s decision to destroy net neutrality rules is the result of broken processes, broken politics, and broken policies. It will end the internet as we know it, harm internet users and small businesses, erode free speech, competition, innovation and user choice in the process. In fact, it really only benefits large Internet Service Providers.

We will re-file our suit against the FCC at the appropriate time (10 days after the order is published in the Federal Register).

You can call your elected officials and urge them to support net neutrality and an open internet. Net neutrality is not a partisan or U.S. issue and the decision to remove protections for net neutrality is the result of broken processes, broken politics, and broken policies. We need politicians to decide to protect users and innovation online rather than increase the power of a few large ISPs.

Vash63 on February 13rd, 2018 at 14:04 UTC »

I really hope some of these lawsuits get somewhere. I think they have a strong case for misconduct but anything short of removing Pai from power probably isn't going to change anything...

miversen33 on February 13rd, 2018 at 13:48 UTC »

What is with the random jabs at Firefox? This is their parent company, suing the FCC because the FCC is a bunch of dicks.

Instead, all we get are "why don't you fix Firefox first?". Look here... The legal team doesn't do the dev work. I know it's a surprise but come on. Seriously?

If anyone else were to do this, everyone would be clammering to support them. For whatever reason though, we hate Firefox...

I believe Mozilla is doing the right thing here and more companies need to join in on this suit.

Side note, my daily browser is not Firefox

EDIT:

Thanks for the Gold! However, instead of giving that to me, if you appreciate the comment and feel like showing it, go donate to the ACLU in their fight Net Neutrality!

FrenchieCorndog on February 13rd, 2018 at 13:48 UTC »

I really hope Mozilla gains headway with this. Even if it ends up only gaining the cause more publicity, I feel it's a fight worth fighting. Kudos to them, and best of luck to their team