More Than Half Of U.S. States Now Pushing Their Own Net Neutrality Rules

from the things-gonna-get-ugly dept

Large ISP lobbyists, the FCC and agency head Ajit Pai are going to be rather busy for the foreseeable future. In the wake of the agency's extremely unpopular net neutrality repeal, consumer groups note that 26 states (27 including a new effort in Kansas) have now taken action to protect net neutrality themselves -- with more efforts on the way. The efforts range from attempts to pass state-level net neutrality rules banning anti-competitive behavior, to executive orders modifying state procurement rules to prohibit ISPs that violate net neutrality from getting state money or securing state contracts.

Last week, Vermont became the fifth state to embrace the executive order route, approving new rules (pdf) that prohibit ISPs from securing state contracts if they engage in anti-competitive throttling, website blocking, or paid prioritization. In all instances, both the proposed state laws and executive orders provide ample leeway for the prioritization of essential services (like medical equipment) while allowing ISPs to engage in "reasonable network management."

That said, ISP lobbyists tend to be pretty good at convincing lawmakers to water down what "reasonable" means before or after the fact, something we saw with both the 2010 and the 2015 FCC rules. Net neutrality rules are also only as good as the willingness to actually enforce them, which historically hasn't been great. In other words, while these are well-intentioned efforts by many state leaders, it's going to be important to hold state leaders' feet to the fire on this issue, especially given the often comical influence ISPs have on state regulators and politicians.

Forseeing this state-level action, ISPs like Verizon and Comcast successfully lobbied the FCC to include language in its repeal banning states from enforcing net neutrality or protecting broadband subscriber privacy (in the wake of their other success killing privacy rules last year).

But the FCC's authority on this front remains uncertain. Many of the state leaders, like Montana Governor Steve Bullock, believe the executive orders fall outside of FCC jurisdiction anyway:

"Through the order, the State of Montana acts as a consumer—not a regulator. Because there's no mandate, and no new regulations, there's certainly no federal preemption. Companies that don't like Montana's proposed contract terms don't have to do business with the State."

We've noted a few times the irony involved in Ajit Pai's position on this subject. Pai is one of several ISP allies who have whined incessantly about the need to protect "state rights" when states are passing ISP-written protection laws intended to hamstring competition among telecom operators. Here you've got states actually trying to do right by consumers and you'll notice this interest in states rights magically disappears like morning dew in the mid-day heat.

Keep in mind, in addition to doing battle with 27 states, FCC boss Ajit Pai is also facing two different GAO inquiries into his odd behavior during the repeal, as well as a new FCC Inspector General investigation into whether Pai's too cozy with the companies he's supposed to be regulating. He's also facing a lawsuit by 22 State Attorneys General accusing him of ignoring the public interest in the repeal. That's in addition to the numerous lawsuits being filed by consumer advocates, activists, and the competing companies who'll be harmed by this blatant handout to Comcast and Verizon.

And while the rotating crop of dollar-per-holler "consultants," think tankers, lobbyists and PR folks are already deriding the "chaos" and "uncertainty" created by states crafting their own rules, that's again something these ISPs should have thought more deeply about before attacking consistent and arguably modest (by international standards) federal protections. They built this chaos, and shouldn't be allowed to tap dance around that fact.

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Filed Under: ajit pai, fcc, net neutrality, states, states rights