Lawmakers join forces on net neutrality
Two Democrats revise dueling net neutrality bills to complement each other’s efforts.
Two Democratic state senators revise their dueling bills in a joint effort to establish stronger web rules.
SACRAMENTO — As the fight to preserve net neutrality gears up in California, two state senators are melding their efforts to establish rules that would prevent internet service providers from manipulating or slowing access to online content.
Under new amendments unveiled Monday, Sens. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) and Kevin de León (D Los Angeles) have rewritten their dueling net neutrality bills to complement each other — and added conditions so that both must be signed by the governor to take effect.
The move comes a week after net neutrality was officially repealed at the federal level, following a vote by the Federal Communications Commission in December to roll back the rules.
Wiener’s Senate Bill 822 will now be solely responsible for setting California’s net neutrality standards: It would bar broadband companies that do business in the state from blocking, throttling or interfering with a customer’s internet access based on the nature of the content or type of service.
It would also prevent providers from varying speeds between websites or charging customers additional fees for their services to reach more people. It would task the state attorney general’s office with enforcing the rules.
De León’s Senate Bill 460, which previously tasked the California Public Utilities Commission with creating new net neutrality rules, now will focus solely on prohibiting companies that violate the net neutrality rules from receiving public contracts — including those awarded by schools, cities and counties.
Wiener said combining forces was necessary to reinstate net neutrality in California amid heavy lobbying in Sacramento from major internet service providers, “playing the bills against each other with the goal of killing both.”
“The internet is now the catalyst in our society for growing our economy, engaging in the democratic process, and connecting with one another,” De León said in a statement. “It is an information equalizer, and everyone from farmworkers to financiers deserves fair access to it.”
The bills are up before a key Assembly committee this week. Twitter and Facebook ads have been urging lawmakers to vote against Wiener’s bill.
Opponents argue that state-level regulations would probably increase internet service costs and diminish companies’ investment in broadband infrastructure.
In a news conference last week, representatives of the tech industry and business groups pointed to an industry-funded analysis that asserted that more than 3.6 million Californians could see their cellphone bills rise by as much as $30 a month, including disproportionate numbers of low-income and minority consumers.
The findings were based on market surveys tallying the number of people who rely on zero-rated data plans, which allow customers to stream content on their phones and mobile devices without counting against their data caps.
Wiener’s office contested the study, saying zero-data plans would be limited but not entirely affected.