Vermont Protects Net Neutrality in Middle Finger to FCC

Vermont just became the fifth state to protect net neutrality by executive order. Republican Vermont Governor Phil Scott signed an executive order this week requiring that ISPs that do business in the state adhere to net neutrality principles if they want to receive state money--or win state contracts. The move joins similar moves by New York, New Jersey, Montana, and Hawaii in the wake of the Trump administration's extremely unpopular repeal of federal net neutrality protections.

The order itself closely mirrors Montana's order, which the state had suggested could be used as a template for other states to follow.

Both orders prohibit anti-competitive throttling, paid prioritization, and other dirty tricks large ISPs use to make life harder on competing services, while allowing ample leeway for the prioritization of essential medical services and reasonable network management.

"I believe an open internet is essential to the flow of information, goods and services that will grow Vermont’s economy," Scott said of the move. "Our students depend heavily on the internet to access academic material, Vermonters use the internet to acquire information and receive critical services through our agencies and departments, and the internet is relied upon to share information, sell products and offer services."

While five states have passed executive orders, twenty six states are now in the process of passing their own net neutrality legislation. And while incumbent ISPs like Comcast have already started whining that this creates a discordant patchwork of rules that's hard for big multi-state ISPs to navigate, that's probably something David Cohen and friends should have considered before gutting arguably consistent and modest (by international standards) net neutrality rules.

Expecting the approach by the states, ISPs like Comcast and Verizon had lobbied Ajit Pai's FCC asking them to contain language in the repeal "pre-empting" states from protecting consumers from privacy, net neutrality violations, or other symptoms of limited broadband competition. As a rubber stamp regulator Pai was quick to comply, even though it's entirely unclear whether the agency has the authority to pre-empt the states on this matter.

Ajit Pai and other revolving door regulators and cash-compromised lawmakers (like Marsha Blackburn ) have tried to argue that when states pass protectionist laws banning your town or city from building their own broadband networks it's perfectly fine--and a manner of "states rights." Here you'll notice that as states-- that breathless concern over state authority magically