Net Neutrality One Step Closer to Becoming the Law of the Land

WASHINGTON — On Monday, the Office of the Federal Register published the Net Neutrality rules the Federal Communications Commission adopted in February. The publication of the rules bring real Net Neutrality protections closer to becoming official, but it also will trigger additional lawsuits from opponents of the open Internet.

The FCC passed these rules, which prevent phone and cable companies from blocking, throttling or otherwise interfering with online content, in response to the millions of Americans who urged the agency to enact strong Net Neutrality protections.

Free Press Policy Director Matt Wood made the following statement:

“The publication of the rules brings us one step closer to having the enforceable Net Neutrality protections that millions of Americans have called for. Strong Net Neutrality is crucial to the health of the open Internet. It's a principle most Americans from across the political spectrum support. Restoring it preserves the status quo on the open Internet for businesses, innovators, communities of color, artists and everyday individual users. They all rely on access free of undue interference.

"And yet phone and cable companies are still scheming to overturn these freedoms. These companies and their lawyers and lobbyists have been trying to scare lawmakers away from the restoration of these common-sense rules with misinformation about alleged harms to investment and innovation. They have threatened all along to sue over the FCC's decision, even though that decision is supported by millions of people and is absolutely essential for our economy.

"No matter when and where they file in court, the phone and cable lobby have to deal with the fact that Title II is the right law and the one that applies to two-way communications services like broadband Internet access. Congress updated Title II on an overwhelmingly bipartisan basis in 1996 to preserve the timeless nondiscrimination principles we still need for these networks. The FCC's return to that law, and its light-touch use of it here, is a rock-solid foundation for the Open Internet rules adopted in February.

"While Internet service providers will spend buckets of money to woo Congress and file lawsuits, people everywhere will continue fighting for the open Internet protections they won."