Dems to Intro 'Save the Internet Act' to Restore Net Neutrality

Authored by gizmodo.com and submitted by mvea
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House Democrats on Wednesday will introduce a bill to reinstate the net neutrality rules repealed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in late 2017.

In a letter to Democratic colleagues, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the bill, know as the “Save the Internet Act,” will be introduced on Wednesday morning at 11:15 am. Text of the bill is not currently available.

The bill will likely seek to reestablish broadband internet access as a “telecommunications service” under Title II of the Communications Act, a key designation the Republican-led FCC voted to abandon in late 2017. The change to Title II classification gave the FCC the authority in 2015 to protect online businesses and consumers against any unreasonable practices of broadband providers.

The 2015 order also outlined numerous practices that the Obama-era commission believed unreasonable. That included the ability of broadband providers to selectively block or throttle websites and services. It also banned systems of paid prioritization, in which ISPs are allowed to choose which services are the quickest to access for consumers, charging companies additional fees for the privilege.

In December 2017, the FCC’s three GOP commissioners, led by Chairman Ajit Pai, voted to repeal those protections in a party-line vote. The vote was, in essence, a decision by Republicans to diminish their own agency’s authority to protect consumers, while claiming that—despite evidence to the contrary—oversight was hindering industry innovation.

“The bill isn’t out yet, but we hope it will give a congressional stamp of approval to the FCC’s 2015 Net Neutrality rules and the whole Open Internet Order,” said Timothy Karr, senior director of strategy and communications at Free Press. “That’s crucial, because the legal framework already in Title II is the baseline for guaranteeing the full range of protections demanded by internet users, including overwhelming majorities of Democratic and Republican voters.”

The effort to pass the “Save the Internet Act” in the Senate is being led by Senator Ed Markey, his spokesperson said.

In late 2017, the Senate passed a resolution to overturn the FCC’s net neutrality repeal under the Congressional Review Act. But the House, then controlled by the GOP, did not take up the resolution in time.

The FCC repeal is also currently being challenged in the D.C. Circuit by dozens of petitioners, including the Mozilla Corporation, Public Knowledge, Free Press, the Open Technology Institute at New America, and 21 state attorneys general.

Update, 5:15pm: Added comment from Tim Karr of Free Press.

theshadowhunterz on March 5th, 2019 at 18:47 UTC »

How about removing data caps... that's the biggest BS trend these days.

Cory_Booker_2020 on March 5th, 2019 at 15:45 UTC »

A great and necessary first step; however, the internet is a utility at this point and should be regulated analogously to one. Despite MASSIVE investment by the Government in building out internet infrastructure, Americans pay far more for internet than much of the world.

Policies I hope the Democrats embrace for the 2020 election:

Re-instatement of Common Carrier (net neutrality) internet policies

Better regulation and rate setting of utility poles to allow greater access and competition utilizing preemption to prevent state and local interference

Antitrust lawsuits against the ISPs for practice of 'agreed but not spoken' regional monopolies

Break-up of the largest ISPs with ownership percentage caps nationally and regionally

Better advertising regulation to require "average" and "maximum" internet speeds instead of "maximum" speeds that are not achieved in practice

Memorialization of the above polices written into law so that they can't be changed based on the whims of individual administrations

smile_e_face on March 5th, 2019 at 15:02 UTC »

What a great name. Can't wait to see the memes on this one.

Holy shit, the astroturfing in this thread is starting early.

Yes, there might be bad riders. Yes, we need to read the bill. But given that the Republicans have made it their mission to turn the Internet into Cable 2.0, I'm willing to give the Democrats a shot here.