In the wake of a federal appeals court decision last October, several states are proceeding with new legislation to impose net neutrality rules on internet service providers—replacing the rules that were repealed in 2018 by the Republican controlled Federal Communications Commission. Pennsylvania is now the latest to move forward with a net neutrality bill, according to a report by WENY News, which covers western Pennsylvania.
The FCC repeal reclassified internet service providers as “information” services, rather than “telecommunications” services. The federal government takes a more hands-off approach to regulating “information services,” allowing the 2015 net neutrality rules to be lifted.
But a bill introduced by Pennsylvania State Senator Larry Farnese of Philadelphia would regulate ISPs in the state the same way any public utility would be regulated.
“Some of the highlights in the legislation we’re putting in is to add ISPs to the list of public utilities, allow PUC (Public Utility Commission) regulation, require providers to follow net neutrality, ban paid prioritization, and prohibiting Pennsylvania from contracting with non-neutral providers,” Farnese told WENY.
The bill comes after a decision by a federal appeals court in Washington D.C. which upheld the FCC’s repeal of the 2015 net neutrality rules. But at the same time, the court overruled FCC Chair Ajit Pai, who claimed that a “preemption clause” in the new repeal regulations prohibited states from imposing their one net neutrality rules.
The central principle of net neutrality is that all internet traffic must be treated equally. ISPs may not block or slow traffic from some sites, while granting access to an online “fast lane” to others.
“Without Net Neutrality, ISPs are free to divide the internet into fast lanes for those that can afford it, and slow lanes for everyone else,” Joshua Stager, Senior Policy Counsel with the Open Technology Institute, told WENY.
But the bill introduced by Farnese would allow the state to strictly regulate ISPs to prevent those non-neutral practices. The bill is now awaiting a vote in the state’s Senate Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure Committee, before moving to the full senate.
Photo By F McGady / Wikimedia Commons
