US FCC rules repealing net neutrality to take effect on 11 June

In the USA, the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Restoring Internet Freedom Order is to take effect on 11 June 2018, repealing the 2015 net neutrality order and restoring the classification of broadband Internet access service as a lightly-regulated information service. In his statement, the FCC Chairman, Ajit Pai, said that the Restoring Internet Freedom Order, adopted on 14 December 2017, ‘ends the heavy-handed, utility-style regulation from 1934 of broadband Internet access service’, replacing them with ‘a strengthened transparency requirement that empowers consumers in the marketplace’. Pai also argues that the new rules allow a different US government agency – the Federal Trade Commission – to ‘protect consumers’ online privacy and promote competition across the entire Internet ecosystem instead of harming innovation and investment’. The new FCC order is still a controversial matter, and a vote is expected in the US Senate on a possible rejection of the order.