FCC Chair Rosenworcel Announces Vote on April 25 to Restore Essential Net Neutrality Protections and Safeguard Internet Users

WASHINGTON — On Tuesday, Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel confirmed in a Reuters Interview that the agency will vote later this month on whether to restore Net Neutrality and reclassify high-speed-internet access services as telecom services subject to Title II of the Communications Act.

The vote is scheduled for the agency’s monthly open meeting on April 25. Title II authority allows the FCC to safeguard Net Neutrality and hold companies like AT&T, Comcast and Verizon accountable to internet users across the United States. Later this week, Rosenworcel is expected to release a draft of the proposed rule change.

Free Press Action Co-CEO Craig Aaron said:

“We’ve been fighting for this moment since Trump’s FCC threw out strong Title II rules and abandoned Net Neutrality back in 2017 – and really for nearly 20 years since Net Neutrality first came under threat. Chairwoman Rosenworcel and the Biden administration promised to reverse the Trump FCC’s gutting of these essential protections, and today they are delivering. We welcome and celebrate the FCC’s decision to move ahead and make sure that internet users will again be protected against harms by big phone and cable companies like AT&T, Comcast and Verizon. 

“By restoring these essential protections that millions fought so hard to make a reality, the FCC would once again be following the law Congress wrote for modern internet-access service, re-establishing its oversight of the essential telecommunications service that connects all of us. This just makes common sense. Congress has already given the FCC the tools it needs to make the internet work better for everyone. The FCC just needs to actually use them. 

“Under these strong but flexible FCC rules, every ISP will be responsible for making resilient networks available to people on just and reasonable terms. And they won’t be able to pick and choose what any of us can say or see online. Net Neutrality is a guarantee that the phone and cable companies will carry our data across the internet without undue interference or unreasonable discrimination.

“Without this clear authority over broadband access, the FCC is vastly weakened in its ability to protect internet users from ISPs’ privacy invasions, promote broadband competition and deployment, and take action against hidden junk fees, data caps and billing rip-offs.

“Reclassifying broadband access under this authority changes all of that. Moreover, it shows a government agency doing what it’s supposed to do: Listen to the public and stand up for them against rich and powerful companies that for too long have called all the shots in D.C. We’re especially grateful to Chairwoman Rosenworcel for leading this effort to restore these essential rights to internet users.”

###