A California net neutrality bill that has been hailed by open internet advocates as setting a “gold standard” for legislation to replace the now-repealed federal rules has been pulled from consideration in the state assembly, after a committee vote “eviscerated” the bill, its author says.
The California state senate passed the bill in a 26-12 vote on May 31, but before SB 822, authored by San Francisco lawmaker Scott Wiener, even reached the Assembly floor for a vote by that legislative body, the bill now appears to be, if not dead, than at least in a coma.
“It is no longer a net neutrality bill,” Wiener told the San Francisco Chronicle, announcing that he was withdrawing the bill after the Assembly’s Communications and Conveyance Committee voted 8-0 on a heavily edited version of his bill without even allowing Wiener to testify in support of his original version.
“I will state for the record ... I think it was fundamentally unfair,” Wiener said.
So what happened? According to a report by the news and culture site Mashable, the debacle came down to the committee’s chair, Los Angeles Democrat Miguel Santiago—who has reportedly received $880,000 from interests related to to the telecommunications giant AT&T, tech news magazine Fast Company reported. AT&T and other big telecoms have vigorously opposed the California bill.
Among the amendments added by Santiago was a provision deleting SB 822’s ban on “zero rating,” the practice of a large ISP offering its own online services and content for free while charging fees for data that exceeds monthly cap limits by competing providers.
Santiago’s amendments also allow for “paid prioritization,” according to a report by The San Jose Mercury News, meaning that ISPs may allow traffic from some providers to pay a fee to access an internet “fast lane,” while those who can’t afford it may have their data blocked or throttled. Net neutrality rules have been designed specifically to prevent paid prioritization of online traffic.
Earlier this week, as AVN.com reported, Wiener and State Senator Kevin de León, who had authored a weaker, competing net neutrality bill, agreed to link their two bills, meaning that the two could be voted on only together, not one at a time.
But the committee on Wednesday took up the two bills separately anyway, and de León did not show up for the hearing, for reasons that were unexplained, according to the Chronicle report.
“This committee has turned the bill into one that doesn’t protect net neutrality,” Wiener said, as quoted by the Mercury News. “I do not accept these amendments.”
Photo by M.O. Stevens/Wikimedia Commons
