US drops net neutrality lawsuit against California

The U.S. The Ministry of Justice has dropped his Trump-era trial against California adopting its own net neutrality rules.

The news, spotted by Ars Technica, means tthe federal government let the state do what it wants in terms of net neutrality, which is line with the Biden Athe administration’s promise to restore the laws at the federal level. Federal Communications Commission Acting President Jessica Rosenworcel said in a statement that she was “happy” with the turn of events.

The California Internet Consumer Protection and Net Neutrality Act was promulgated on September 30, 2018, in response to FCC’s decision to repeal net neutrality. Designed to fill the void left by the FCC led by Ajit Pai, the law prevents Internet service providers from: blocking and slowing legal traffic; phelp prioritization of service; getting paid withero-rate some content in a category, but not all content in that category (looking at you, AT&T); and not be transparent about network management practices, performance and business conditions.

Hours after the law came into effect, the Trump-era DOJ took legal action against California, claiming states have no jurisdiction over the internet. Therefore, California has agreed not to enforce the law in exchange for the non-execution of the trial by the DOJ. In August of last year, the Trump administration resumed its lawsuit against California, but the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that the FCC could not force individual states to uphold the repeal of government neutrality. net – oneAlthough he said the FCC could repeal its own net neutrality rules, unfortunately. The tribunal confirmed the claim that broadband is not a telecommunications service, not convinced by the millions of people working and attending home school as a result of the covid-19 pandemic.

Now that the lawsuit has officially been dismissed, that leaves California in a position to enforce the law it passed more than two years ago.

But there is another obstacle: ISPs. Several major lobby groups representing some of the largest telecommunications groups in the United States – Comcast, Charter, AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint, Cox, Frontier and CenturyLink: filed a separate trial against the state in October 2018, calling the law an example of “unconstitutional state regulation” and undermining federal law. The pressure groups amended their trial in August last year.

It’s unclear what or what legal precedence this argument still holds, given that the DOJ has now officially withdrawn its lawsuit against California. And with Rosenworcel currently as head of the FCC, it’s entirely possible that net neutrality will be restored. All of this combined seems to render the broadband lobbyists’ argument moot. However, President Biden is expected to appoint a new Democratic commissioner and have that appointment approved by the Senate to break the 2-2 deadlock between Democrats and Republicans in the FCC.