Democratic attorneys general vow to sue FCC over net-neutrality repeal

The three Republicans on the FCC, including Chair Ajit Pai, voted for the ruling, while the two Democratic commissioners voted against it. However, many have said the writing was on the wall for the repeal with the election of United States president Donald Trump, who called net neutrality “Obama’s attack on the internet”.

He added that it “certainly wasn’t heavy-handed government regulation” that has been responsible for the internet’s “phenomenal” development. “I strongly oppose the FCC’s decision to fully repeal net neutrality and allow internet service providers to influence the content users can see”.

After the FCC released its plan in late November, well-known telecom and media analysts Craig Moffett and Michael Nathanson wrote in a note to investors that the FCC plan dismantles “virtually all of the important tenets of net neutrality itself”.

Once Title II is undone at the federal level, it is critical that the FCC preempt states looking to impose Title II-type restrictions at the state and local level. Based on the FCC docket, more than 23 million Americans submitted comments, an unrealistically high number that is equivalent to 1 in 14 Americans.

“We are 5-0 against the Trump Administration because they often fail to follow the law when taking executive action”, Mr. Ferguson said in a statement. “Today, I am announcing my intention to file a legal challenge to the FCC’s decision to roll back net neutrality, along with attorneys general across the country”.

In her scathing four-page dissent to Thursday’s decision, FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn anxious about the effect on “marginalized groups” that rely on the internet to communicate “because traditional outlets do not consider their issues or concerns worthy of any coverage”.

The “agency that is supposed to protect you is abandoning you”, she said. There were concerns about potential price regulation, even though the FCC had said it won’t set prices for consumer internet service.

The internet, he said, “has functioned without net neutrality rules for far longer than it has with them”. “It’s a great day for consumers and our innovation economy”.

“The internet wasn’t broken in 2015”, he said during the meeting.

Signs that those on the left and the right remained split over net neutrality also came Thursday when conservatives weighed in with their reactions. When net neutrality rules were first enacted by the FCC in 2015, publication did not happen until six weeks after the vote. And AT&T blocked Skype and other internet calling services on the iPhone until 2009.

Here’s a brief explanation of what net neutrality is, why it was repealed and how Thursday’s vote might affect our pocket and the Internet as we know it. Consumer advocates worry that ISPs will exploit customers now that such protections are not in place. “We have repeatedly stated and reiterate today, that we do not and will not block, throttle, or discriminate against lawful content”.

Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, a Democrat who was appointed by former president Barack Obama, lambasted the “preordained outcome” of the vote that she said hurts people, small and large businesses, and marginalised populations.