After a hard-fought battle, the nation’s toughest net neutrality law passed in California on Friday and is headed to Gov. Jerry Brown’s desk — where a signature from the governor will restore tight internet regulations to the nation’s most important market.
The state Senate approved the bill 23-11 on Friday, a day after it passed in the State Assembly. The bill initially was approved by the Senate in May but had to return to the chamber Friday, the last day of the legislative session, after changes were made.
Going into the legislative session this week, it was unclear whether the measure would get 41 votes, the minimum required to pass in the State Assembly. But six Republicans voted for the bill after a contentious debate.
Gov. Brown’s office said he would not be commenting on SB 822. He has not taken a public position on net neutrality.
The Trump FCC’s repeal of the 2015 Open Internet order — which was approved last year and took effect this summer — has sparked efforts by many U.S. states to enact their own rules to prohibit the blocking or throttling of internet traffic. A California law could have nationwide implications, since internet service providers are loath to operate under multiple sets of rules.
“New York has already committed to follow what California does,” said Ernesto Falcon, legislative counsel for internet advocacy group Electronic Frontier Foundation, on Thursday. “This (bill) will catch on and affect the debate.”
State Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, introduced SB 822 in January. It has since encountered numerous obstacles that included being rendered practically toothless by the Assembly Communications and Conveyance Committee in June. That committee’s chairman, Democratic Assemblyman Miguel Santiago, eventually yielded to enormous public pressure to restore consumer protections to the bill. Now Santiago is all in: He has signed on as co-author and presented the bill on the Assembly floor Thursday.
SB 822’s key provisions include banning internet service providers from discriminating for or against certain types of online traffic and prohibiting abusive “zero rating.” Zero rating is when ISPs exempt certain types of online traffic from counting against customers’ data caps.
The bill was opposed by internet service providers and some chambers of commerce, which prefer federal regulations because they say state-by-state rules can be confusing and tough to implement. Opponents of net neutrality have long said they favor less regulation. They expressed disappointment over the vote.
When reached Thursday, spokespeople for AT&T and Comcast referred to a statement released by the California Cable and Telecommunications Association and CTIA: “What the country needs is permanent bipartisan federal legislation that will benefit consumers and ensure consistent rules of the road for all companies and across all websites.”
Meanwhile, net neutrality advocates cheered what they called a testament to the power of the internet.
“Big ISPs spent millions on campaign contributions, lobbyists and dark ads on social networks,” said Evan Greer, deputy director of Fight for the Future, “but in the end it was no match for the passion and dedication of net neutrality supporters using the internet to sound the alarm and mobilize.”
The advance of the California bill comes amid growing momentum to overturn the FCC repeal. More than 100 members of Congress signed on to an amicus brief filed Tuesday by Sen. Ed Markey, D-Massachusetts, and Congresswoman Anna Eshoo, D-California, in support of states’ efforts to overturn the FCC’s repeal.
“Both the plain language and Congressional intent behind the Telecommunications Act of 1996 that Congresswoman Eshoo and I helped author make clear that today, broadband access to the internet is a telecommunications service,” Markey said in a statement.
Eshoo mentioned, as a reason new rules are needed, Verizon’s recent throttling of internet data for Santa Clara County firefighters as they fought the Mendocino Complex fire, the largest fire in California history.
“Without clear enforceable rules of the road for providers, we’re going to continue to see (these types of actions),” Eshoo said during a conference call Tuesday.
Although Verizon insists that its throttling was not a net neutrality issue and was simply a mistake because of the tier of data access to which the firefighters were subscribed, a coalition of more than 30,000 California firefighters and emergency personnel has voiced its support for SB 822, saying public safety depends on it.
Other parties who recently have filed legal briefs against the FCC’s repeal of net neutrality rules include tech industry groups such as the Computer & Communications Industry Association, which on Monday urged the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to review and throw out the FCC’s December decision. And on Tuesday, 1,000 firefighters and emergency personnel from around the nation signed an open letter urging Congress to use its authority to reverse the FCC action.
