Washington State Keeps Net Neutrality in Place After Court Ruling

About two weeks ago, a federal appeals court ruled that individual states have the right to enforce their own net neutrality rules, even though the Federal Communications Commission has repealed those rules at the federal level. As AVN.com reported, the Washington, D.C., court upheld the FCC’s trashing of the Obama-era federal net neutrality laws—but told the FCC that it had no right to stop states from passing their own versions of the rules. In its order repealing the regulations last year, the FCC, which is chaired by Donald Trump appointee Ajit Pai, including a “preemption” clause, designed to prohibit states from enforcing net neutrality rules once the federal rules had been ditched. A three-judge panel on the D.C. court ruled that, even though it was within its rights to repeal the net neutrality regulations, the FCC went too far by blocking states from putting their own rules in place. But despite the act that, after the FCC voted to repeal the federal rules, several states quickly imposed their own regulations, only one now says that it will continue to enforce the net neutrality standards. That state, Washington, was also the first to put its own net neutrality rules in place, as AVN.com reported, in June of last year—just one week after the FCC’s federal repeal took effect. According to report by the technology news site Ars Technica, only Washington has continued to enforce net neutrality rules that apply directly to internet service providers. Another, Oregon, is also keeping its net neutrality law on the books, but the Oregon statute simply bars state agencies from using internet services provided by companies that fail to adhere to net neutrality standards—but does not actually require the ISPs to follow net neutrality rules. Vermont also passed a net neutrality bill last year, but put it on hold pending the court’s decision. However, even after the court’s green light to put its rules into effect, Vermont Governor Phil Scott, a Republican, said that he would keep the law on ice, pending future court rulings in other net neutrality lawsuits. California, which passed what was considered the nation’s toughest net neutrality law last year—but agreed not to enforce it as the lawsuit made its way through the courts—has also failed to put the law into effect, even after the court ruling. Photo By Bobak Ha'Eri / Wikimedia Commons