Tag Archives: net neutrality

Law & Crime reports: On the year former President Trump’s Federal Communications Commission voted to repeal net neutrality, the regulator was inundated with more than 22 million comments. Nearly 18 million of them were fake, and some 40 percent of those came from an influence campaign linked to the broadband industry, New York Attorney General Letitia James found in a …

Market Watch reports: The Department of Justice is withdrawing a lawsuit aimed at blocking California from establishing statewide net neutrality laws after the Federal Communications Commission repealed similar federal laws in 2018. The FCC’s repeal of net neutrality was controversial at the time, and opposed by Democrats on the commission, including Jessica Rosenworcel [photo], the current acting head of the …

CNBC reports: Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai will step down from his post on January 20, the day President-elect Joe Biden is inaugurated, he announced Monday. The announcement means that the FCC could reach a Democratic majority sooner than it would otherwise be able to. Pai’s term was slated to expire in June 2021, though Biden will be able …

Roll Call reports: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has already declared the Democratic net neutrality bill, which passed the House on Wednesday, “dead on arrival” in the upper chamber. Democrats likely never gave their legislation, sponsored by Democratic Pennsylvania Rep. Mike Doyle, much of a chance of advancing beyond the House. But while Republicans have spent weeks shaping their message …

The Hill reports: Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced Monday that Democrats will introduce a net neutrality bill to replace the open internet rules that were repealed in 2017. In a letter to her Democratic colleagues, Pelosi said a bill called the Save the Internet Act will be unveiled Wednesday and will be introduced in the Senate as well. Democrats have …

Buzzfeed News reports: The Justice Department is investigating whether crimes were committed when potentially millions of people’s identities were posted to the FCC’s website without their permission, falsely attributing to them opinions about net neutrality rules, BuzzFeed News has learned. Two organizations told BuzzFeed News, each on condition that they not be named, that the FBI delivered subpoenas to them …

Reuters reports: The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused a request by the Trump administration and the telecommunications industry to wipe away a lower court decision that had upheld Obama-era net neutrality rules aimed at ensuring a free and open internet, though the justices’ action does not undo the 2017 repeal of the policy. The high court decision not to …

The Washington Post reports: The Trump administration said Sunday it will sue California in an effort to block what some experts have described as the toughest net neutrality law ever enacted in the United States, setting up a high-stakes legal showdown over the future of the Internet. California on Sunday became the largest state to adopt its own rules requiring …

The New York Times reports: It’s official. The Federal Communications Commission’s repeal of net neutrality rules, which had required internet service providers to offer equal access to all web content, took effect on Monday. Under those regulations, broadband service was considered a utility under Title II of the Communications Act, giving the F.C.C. broad power over internet providers. The rules …

Business Insider reports: The US Senate on Wednesday voted narrowly in favor of reinstating the Federal Communications Commission’s net-neutrality rules. Though the vote on the measure has been expected for months, its outcome had been uncertain going into the vote. Fifty senators previously declared their support for it — one shy of the majority needed to pass it. In the …

The Hill reports: Democrats will force a Senate vote on Wednesday on a bill that would save the Federal Communication Commission’s net neutrality rules from repeal. Senate Democrats filed a discharge petition on the bill last week, starting the clock on the long-shot effort to preserve the Obama-era consumer protections. The legislation, introduced by Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), would use …

The Hill reports: Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Ajit Pai received the National Rifle Association’s (NRA) “Charlton Heston Courage Under Fire Award” at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday. The NRA-sponsored award was given to Pai in recognition of months of heavy criticism over his successful push to repeal the agency’s net neutrality rules. Pai led the push to …

Courthouse News reports: The Federal Communications Commission published its official order repealing net neutrality rules in the Federal Register Thursday, prompting New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman to immediately challenge the repeal along with 23 other attorneys general. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, a former Verizon attorney appointed by President Donald Trump last year, completed his campaign to repeal the Obama-Era …

AdWeek raves: On the heels of its brilliant anti-bullying spot last year, Burger King has found another cause it can get behind, and promote with a clever in-store stunt — net neutrality. Net neutrality is a complicated topic to explain, which is where Burger King came in with a meaty metaphor. It set up a social experiment at a BK …

Common Dreams reports: Net neutrality advocates have hit an important milestone and are gaining ground in Congress. A Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution to overturn the FCC’s repeal of net neutrality has hit the 30 sign-ons from Senators needed to force a vote on the Senate floor. The CRA allows Congress to overturn the FCC’s decision, which has generated widespread …

The Associated Press reports: Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai is skipping the CES gadget show because of death threats, according to reports. Pai has scrapped popular net-neutrality rules that had barred broadband providers like AT&T, Comcast and Verizon from interfering with internet traffic. The policy’s supporters have reacted strongly. Pai and his staff have called out racist tweets and …

Engadget reports: This is a bit ironic. When FCC chairman and former Verizon lawyer Ajit Pai uploaded a video this week detailing all the things we’ll still be able to do after he killed net neutrality, he apparently forgot one key step: asking permission. You see, part of the smarmy and glib clip the FCC produced with The Daily Caller …

The Hill reports: Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Ajit Pai said Friday that supporters of net neutrality provisions that were repealed Thursday have been proven wrong, as internet users wake up still able to send emails and use Twitter after the regulations were struck down. Speaking on “Fox and Friends,” Pai said Friday that net neutrality supporters such as ABC …

USA Today reports: Twitter users pounced on Donald Trump Jr. Thursday for a tweet about the debate over net neutrality that featured a prominent typo and an apparent misconception about which president appointed the current chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. In addition to misspelling neutrality, Trump Jr. was mistaken in referring to Chairman Ajit Pai as “Obama’s FCC chairman.” …

The Daily Beast reports: “The Federal Communications Commission did something absolutely despicable today: They voted to put an end to net neutrality,” announced Jimmy Kimmel. The late-night host dedicated a portion of his Jimmy Kimmel Live! monologue Thursday night to the net neutrality vote, which ruled 3-2 (three Republicans for, two Democrats very much against) in favor of dismantling the …