U.S. Rep. Steve Stivers, R-Upper Arlington, is pushing legislation that would prohibit internet providers from blocking or slowing content based on what it is or who's providing it. The bill was introduced after a vote last week by the Federal Communications Commission to repeal 2015 regulations that sought to produce the same result.

Stivers is a lead co-sponsor of the Open Internet Preservation Act, which was introduced by Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn. Stivers and Blackburn still are in the process of signing up other cosponsors for the bill, said Stivers' spokeswoman AnnMarie Graham.

She said her office has been getting lots of calls and emails in the wake of last week's FCC ruling, which polls show is opposed by more than 80 percent of the public. Even so, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine, a Republican candidate for governor, said he had no plans to join a lawsuit by states attempting to reverse the ruling, and no Republican candidate for governor or attorney general disputed his decision.

If it becomes law, the bill would not have the identical effect of the FCC rule that was repealed last week, said Stivers spokesman Tim Alford.

It "will have many of the same effects of the last FCC rules and would codify the prohibition against blocking and throttling," he said in an email. "Because it would be codified in law, it doesn’t need to reclassify ISPs as 'common carriers' under the Telecommunications Act of 1934."

Alford explained that the common carrier designation subjected broadband companies to antiquated regulations that limited innovation and investment.

That section of the Telecommunications Act "was so antiquated (from 1934) that the FCC used something called 'forbearance' to not enforce 700 common carrier regulations against ISPs because they applied to telephone utilities not internet providers," Alford said.

The Stivers-sponsored bill "would "prohibit (internet service providers) from preventing access to lawful internet traffic and content, and from slowing traffic based on the content, source, or destination of the information," his office said in a statement. "The Open Internet Preservation Act also ensures openness by requiring all ISPs to disclose their network management practices for consumers and entrepreneurs alike."

“I’ve heard from many of my constituents who do not want ISPs deciding what sites they visit, what videos they watch, or how they conduct their business online, and I agree,” Stivers said. “ISPs should never prohibit users from legal content and consumers should never be kept in the dark. ISPs do not have the right to pick winners and losers, consumers decide what they want on their screens. This bill would prohibit those sorts of monopolistic practices.”

He added: “Bottom line: free and open internet should never be a partisan issue. This bill would put into law crucial consumer protections that millions of Americans have asked for and that are emphasized in the principles of net neutrality. Furthermore, it does so without imposing the burdensome and overly broad aspects that were originally designed for the rotary telephone on the cultural and economic engine that is our modern internet.”

mschladen@dispatch.com

@martyschladen