LOS ANGELES—A consortium of tech companies, led by the nonprofit Mozilla Foundation — maker of the popular, open-source web browser Firefox — is pressuring new acting Federal Communications Commision Chair Jessica Rosenworcel to quickly reinstate the federal net neutrality rules that were repealed in 2018 under previous, Republican Chair Ajit Pai.
Mozilla also led a group of tech firms in a lawsuit against the FCC to get the net neutrality rules put back in place. That lawsuit was ultimately turned away in 2019 by the Washington D.C. Federal Circuit Court, but Mozilla chose not to appeal the case to the United States Supreme Court.
The court’s decision left the door open for states to impose their own net neutrality laws, which California has now done. Because California’s law is now in effect, AT&T customers will now have to pay for data used by streaming the AT&T-owned HBO Max service, the company announced last week. Previously, AT&T had exempted HBO Max from data caps that it imposes on users of its cell phone and internet services.
Net neutrality rules prohibit internet providers from favoring data from any specific source — including sources they own, as in the case of AT&T and HBO Max — or blocking and throttling data from other sources. The rules are of special importance to the online adult industry, which under net neutrality could not have its content arbitrarily blocked or made more difficult to access.
When Pai resigned in January, President Joe Biden elevated Rosenworcel — an FCC board member and outspoken net neutrality advocate — to the leadership role on the commission. But one seat remains vacant on the five-member board, leaving an even split between Democrats and Republicans, making any vote on reinstating net neutrality rules difficult to carry.
Nonetheless, Mozilla — along with the internet message board company Reddit, video streamer Vimeo and several others — sent a letter to Rosenworcel urging the FCC to reinstate net neutrality regulations as quickly as possible.
The letter called net neutrality “critical for preserving the internet as a free and open medium that promotes innovation and spurs economic growth.” The letter was also signed by representatives of the online encyclopedia firm Wikimedia, the storage site Dropbox, and the ticket sales site Eventbrite.
“In a moment where classrooms and offices have moved online by necessity, it is critically important to have rules paired with strong government oversight and enforcement to protect families and businesses from predatory practices,” Mozilla Chief Legal Officer Amy Keating said in a statement last week, explaining why the company believes that the COVID-19 pandemic has made net neutrality rules even more critical than prior to the crisis.
“By using its authority to restore net neutrality at the federal level, the FCC can help protect families and businesses across the country that rely on high-speed broadband access and help spark our recovery,” the companies wrote in the letter to Rosenworcel.
Biden has yet to give an indication of when he plans to fill the vacant fifth spot on the FCC board, which would presumably provide a third and deciding vote in favor or putting the repealed net neutrality rules back in place.
Photo By Slowking / Wikimedia Commons
