Since they lost the battle over net neutrality in Congress, Democrats have moved to a more guerrilla tactic where they are introducing state legislatures in order to preserve the rules previously imposed by the Obama administration. At least six states have introduced their own net neutrality bills and others are in the process of making them.
In December, Chairman Ajit Pai managed to get Senate to roll back the regulations. The regulations were meant to prevent service providers like AT&T and Verizon from blocking certain websites make customers pay additionally. In other words the Net Neutrality bill was the guardian of the free internet.
The Hill reports that as of Friday, California, Washington, New York, Rhode Island, Nebraska and Massachusetts have all introduced net neutrality. North Carolina and Illinois are mulling similar legislation.
“For Californians, the internet has always been an open, free, egalitarian space, accessible to all individuals. And we strongly believe that, since we are the epicenter of innovation and creativity in the area of technology,” said California state senator Kevin de León (D), who introduced his own net neutrality legislation this week.
Apart from De Leon, other state lawmakers across the U.S. are trying to pass similar legislation hoping this will force the internet service providers to abide by the rules across the nation.
The FCC revoked the net neutrality rules in December ignoring the public’s protests, this inspired state lawmakers to take matters into their own hands and give back the freedom of the internet to the citizens.
According to The Hill, a poll conducted and released before the FCC’s vote on December 14, showed that 83 percent of the public was opposed to Pai’s move to end net neutrality regulations.
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