Draft bills proposed in US to protect net neutrality

Following the December 2017 vote by the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to repeal net neutrality rules, legislators in different states across the USA are proposing bills to enforce the net neutrality principle at state level. In December, such bills were proposed in Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and Washington. This month has so far seen two other pro net neutrality draft bills being proposed in California. One would make it ‘unlawful for broadband Internet providers to block or limit Internet services, to interfere with or disadvantage customers’ access to Internet services, or to engage in deceptive or misleading marketing practices’, while allowing the attorney general, district attorneys, or city attorney to enforce such prohibitions. The other would ‘regulate business practices to require net neutrality, condition state contracts on adhering to net neutrality, require net neutrality as part of cable franchise agreements, as a condition to using the public right-of-way for Internet infrastructure, and condition the right to attach small cell or other broadband wireless communications to utility poles on adherence to net neutrality’.