SACRAMENTO — A closely watched bill to create net neutrality protections in California passed the state Assembly on Thursday, thus keeping alive efforts to restore internet protections.

SB822 by Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, has faced fierce opposition from the telecommunications industry and was nearly abandoned after an Assembly committee gutted it in June. After that committee’s chairman, Assemblyman Miguel Santiago, D-Los Angeles, faced severe backlash, he reached a deal with Wiener to restore the bill.

On Thursday, Santiago presented the bill to the Assembly, where he championed it as key to a free and open internet.

“The Trump administration destroyed the internet as we know it,” Santiago said. “Plain and simple. We have an opportunity here in California to lead the nation. … This is imperative in the fight for a free and open internet that does not discriminate content or users based on how much money they have or who can pay them.”

The bill easily passed the Assembly 60-18, with six Republicans voting in favor, including Assemblywoman Catharine Baker, R-San Ramon. The margin of victory in the Assembly took many by surprise given the more conservative house was seen as the biggest obstacle in passing the legislation.

“People want this,” Wiener said. “It’s is not controversial. The vote today reflected that.”

It now heads back to the Senate, where it is expected to pass a second time before the end of Friday. It would then head to Gov. Jerry Brown’s desk.

The governor has not indicated whether he would sign it, according to Wiener. Brown’s office declined to comment.

“No one wants their cable or phone company to control what they see and do on the Internet,” said Evan Greer, deputy director of the policy group Fight for the Future. “California just took a huge step toward restoring protections that prevent companies like AT&T and Comcast from screwing us all over more than they already do,”

Wiener introduced the bill a month after the Federal Communications Commission voted in December to overturn Obama-era regulations that barred internet service companies from favoring websites, including those they have financial ties to, in a way that creates winners and losers. Supporters say that without the bill, internet companies will create cable-like service plans that speed up some video streams and apps and slow down others.

Opponents of the bill have argued that California is outside its regulatory reach by trying to replace the federal rule. Those opponents, particularly the telecommunications industry, have said creating state-by-state regulations is impractical.

“Come on, you are wading into an area that you have no business being in,” said Assemblywoman Melissa Melendez, R-Lake Elsinore (Riverside County), who opposed the bill. “This is a federal issue. … I mean I would argue that if we asked five people in here who are arguing for this bill, you couldn’t explain net neutrality if your life depended on it. This is not our issue. I get it, the Trump administration made a change, California Democrats resist change when it comes to the current administration.”

The Trump-era FCC, which oversaw the repeal of Obama-era net neutrality rules, has described the change as a return to the “light-touch regulatory scheme that enabled the internet to develop and thrive for nearly two decades.”

Jonathan Spalter, the CEO of USTelecom, a trade association for the telecommunications industry, said the bill creates a “confusing patchwork of conflicting requirements” that “won’t get us any closer to the stable and consistent net neutrality protections consumers deserve in the long term.”

Melody Gutierrez is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mgutierrez@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @MelodyGutierrez