States, Activists Challenge FCC Rollback of Net-Neutrality Rules -- Update
January 16 2018 - 6:07PM
Dow Jones News
By John D. McKinnon
WASHINGTON -- State attorneys general and internet activists
filed legal challenges to the Federal Communications Commission's
recent rollback of Obama-era internet regulations, launching a
legal battle that could go on for years.
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and more than 20
other officials filed their combined petition in the U.S. Court of
Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
The appeal alleges the FCC's December rollback of so-called
net-neutrality rules was "arbitrary and capricious" and failed to
justify the abrupt turnaround, given the government's longstanding
support for the policy, according to a release. The challenge also
says the new FCC order improperly pre-empted state and local
efforts to impose net-neutrality rules on internet service
providers.
The FCC didn't immediately comment on the suits. FCC Chairman
Ajit Pai, a Republican, has argued that the Obama-era
net-neutrality rules were hurting investment in broadband
infrastructure. Republicans on the FCC also have criticized many of
the Obama-era rules as government overreach.
The open-internet rules require internet service providers such
as Comcast Corp., AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. to
treat all traffic equally. The rules were strongly supported by
internet companies such as Facebook Inc. and Alphabet Inc.'s Google
unit.
"The repeal of net neutrality would turn internet service
providers into gatekeepers -- allowing them to put profits over
consumers while controlling what we see, what we do, and what we
say online," Mr. Schneiderman said in a statement.
Attorneys general from California, Connecticut, Delaware,
Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts,
Minnesota, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon,
Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and the
District of Columbia joined in the challenge.
The new FCC order would reinstate the authority of the Federal
Trade Commission to regulate internet service providers. The
Obama-era rules effectively stripped away the FTC's authority over
internet providers by declaring them to be common carriers.
A number of internet activist groups filed similar challenges on
Tuesday. Mozilla Corp., the maker of open-source Firefox, filed its
petition in federal court in Washington, D.C., as did the Open
Technology Institute, a part of the New America Foundation. Another
group, Free Press, filed a petition challenging the FCC rollback in
the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, in
Massachusetts.
Much of the early legal maneuvering in the challenges will focus
on attempting to influence which federal circuit court of appeals
will ultimately handle the appeal, according to people familiar
with the process.
The Open Technology Institute, for example, said it filed its
petition "in an abundance of caution to ensure that, if a lottery
is held determining the proper venue for the case at this stage,
the D.C. Circuit is included in the selection process."
Write to John D. McKinnon at john.mckinnon@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 16, 2018 17:52 ET (22:52 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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