California Passes Its Own Net Neutrality Law and Gives Trump's Administration the Finger
Earlier this summer, the FCC formally revoked net neutrality regulations. In a nutshell, this allows cable and internet providers to prioritize what websites and content you access by slowing traffic, charging more for faster connections, and generally behaving exactly as you'd expect cable companies to when they're freed from having to put customers ahead of their bottom line. FCC chairman Ajit Pai, who, in case you forgot, thinks you're a complete idiot, has justified this by saying that it's merely taking the Internet back to its early days (which to him means you can still use Instagram and watch Game of Thrones, just like in 1999).
Of course these are disingenuous arguments and you'd be hard-pressed to find someone who wants to give their cable company more say in their daily life and online activity. So it's understandable that California is drawing applause for a bill it passed on Friday, essentially enacting net neutrality at the state-level in what advocates and hope is a model for other states to follow. As The Verge reports:
That would essentially restore the net neutrality rules enacted federally under former President Barack Obama, which were later repealed by the Federal Communications Commission under the watch and guidance of current chairman Ajit Pai. But this bill actually goes further than those rules with an outright ban on zero-rating — the practice of offering free data, potentially to the advantage of some companies over others — of specific apps. Zero-rating would, however, still be allowed as long as the free data applies to an entire category of apps. So an ISP could offer free data for all video streaming apps, but not just for Netflix.
California's net neutrality isn't a done deal yet. Governor Jerry Brown has yet to indicate if he'll sign it into law, though prominent Democrats like Kamala Harris and Nancy Pelosi have expressed support for it. On top of that, Pai's net neutrality repeal explicitly says that states are not allowed to pass their own regulations, though that hasn't been upheld in court yet. And cable companies are almost certain to sue if the bill becomes law.
But this is just the latest battlefront that the state has opened against the Trump administration. California, along with other states, has plowed ahead with marijuana legalization, much to the chagrin of Jeff "We Need More Minorities in Jail" Sessions. And after the Trump White House eliminated Obama-era regulations on greenhouse gas emissions, California promptly adopted its own, prompting a lawsuit from the federal government.
This exposes one of the biggest lies in Republican talking points, namely that the party has any interest in states' rights as an abstract concept—they're far more concerned with removing any barriers or protections or safety concerns that businesses have to put up with. Republicans claim that any attempt at the federal level to protect the environment or consumers is tantamount to tyranny. But, unsurprisingly, it turns out they also hate it when cities or states try the same thing.
