FCC Releases Order To End Net Neutrality Rules
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has released an order on Feb. 22 that states that net neutrality rules will be ending on April 23.
Net neutrality is all about internet service providers (ISPs) enabling equal access to all content and applications without favoring or blocking any particular products or websites. The repeal of net neutrality means that the FCC has given ISPs control over internet traffic.
With the repeal of net neutrality, AT&T, Comcast, Verizon, and other ISPs can decide to charge customers who use certain websites. They can also decide to slow down certain websites or applications and block their chosen content.
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Last month, lawyers and tech companies filed lawsuits in an attempt to stop the repeal. Recent reports say that the Senate is now also working on its congressional reversal. At least 20 states have filed a petition to stop the repeal as well.
The Federal rules allow the Congress to pass a resolution to reverse the FCC's vote within 60 days after the vote has been released. Democratic senators are now working to fight it and have so far secured 50 votes.
"We had originally filed suit early while simultaneously urging the court that the correct date was after this publication," said Denelle Dixon, chief legal and business officer at Mozilla, in a post retrieved by CNN. "That is why today, immediately after the order was published, Mozilla re-filed our suit challenging the FCC net neutrality order."
Along with Mozilla, Vimeo and 23 other attorney generals have been pushing to sue.
"The FCC may have made its illegal rollback of #netneutrality official but this fight is just getting started. Our coalition of 23 AGs just officially filed suit to protect the free and open internet," New York attorney general Eric Schneiderman posted on Twitter on Feb. 22.
Schneiderman also pointed out that the repeal of net neutrality would create a fight between "Big Telecom" versus the "American people."
