DONALD TRUMP FACES LEGAL CHALLENGES OVER NET NEUTRALITY MOVE

FCC votes 32 on rollback as several states, organisations declare they will fight decision in court

WASHINGTON: While the White House expectedly welcomed the voting down of net neutrality rules by the federal communications commission (FCC) on Thursday, the decision appeared headed for legal challenge, with several US states and organisations announcing their plans to go to court within hours.

New York attorney general Eric Schneiderman has announced he will lead a multistate lawsuit against the vote that “gave big telecom an early Christmas present” and “will give ISPs (Internet Service Providers) new ways to control what we see, what we do, and what we say online”.

Washington state, which has said it will enforce net neutrality on ISPs operating within its boundaries through other means, will also sue, and that should be a matter of concern for the successful challenge it mounted against President Donald Trump’s original travel ban, and getting it stayed twice.

The Internet Association, a Washington-based trade body representing Google, Facebook and other IT companies, said the rollback was a “departure from more than a decade of broad, bipartisan consensus on the rules governing the internet” and that it was weighing legal options in a lawsuit.

The American Civil Liberties Union also plans to go to court.

But Trump’s press secretary Sarah Sanders welcomed the rollback of what she described were “burdensome regulations” at the White House press briefing shortly after the vote.

Voting along party lines on Thursday, the five-member FCC voted 3-2 to roll back an Obamaera regulation that prevented ISPs such as AT&T, Comcast, Cox and Verizon from speeding up, slowing or throttling net access, in a public hearing interrupted briefly by a security threat.

“We are helping consumers and promoting competition,” FCC chairman Ajit Pai said before the vote. “Broadband providers will have more incentive to build networks, especially to underserved areas.”

The debate that ensued was acrimonious and in Pai’s case, personal, with net neutrality activists naming his children on placards hung near his home. He also faced racially-charged attacks from critics within the Indian American community.

Pai, a long-time opponent of net neutrality who voted against the 2015 regulation, favours “light-touch” approach to regulation, and believes ISPs will not speed up or slow down net access depending who pays — called paid prioritisation.

Net neutrality is not history in the US, not yet. As Internet Association said in a statement, “The fight isn’t over”.

And other countries are unlikely to follow suit. As Canada’s innovation minister Navdeep Bains tweeted: “Regardless of what other jurisdictions decide, Canada will remain committed to the principles of net neutrality.”