Attorneys general from 22 states and the District of Columbia have asked an appeals court to block the Federal Communications Commission’s rollback of the Obama-era “net neutrality” Internet regulations.
A brief filed Monday evening urges the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to vacate and reverse the FCC’s order. The coalition is led by New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood, who said the repeal was damaging to consumers.
“A free and open internet is critical to New York – and to our democracy. By repealing net neutrality, the FCC is allowing internet service providers to put their profits before consumers while controlling what we see, do, and say online,” Underwood said in a statement. “As we detail in our brief filed today, the rollback of net neutrality will have a devastating impact on millions of New Yorkers and Americans across the country, putting them at risk of abusive practices while undermining state and local regulation of the broadband industry. We’ll continue to fight to protect consumers’ right to a free and open internet.”
A Republican majority in the FCC under President Trump paved the way for an repeal in December, arguing the 2015 decision was an example of executive overreach and that net neutrality hurt Internet innovation. The independent agency voted along party lines to dismantle the net neutrality rules, which aimed to ensure Internet service providers treat all web content equally. Under the Internet regulations, which were adopted by the FCC in 2015, Internet service providers were prohibited from blocking, throttling, or interfering with web traffic.
The Obama-era rules ended in June.
The brief from the 23 attorneys general says the FCC’s move will hurt Americans’ ability to access to “advanced telecommunications services that have become essential for daily life.”
The coalition includes attorneys general of New York, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Mexico, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and the District of Columbia.
