The Nation: It’s Time to Fight Trump’s Assault on Net Neutrality

Donald Trump assumed the presidency and immediately attacked the foundations of a free and open Internet. He did this by putting in place a Federal Communications Commission chairman and an FCC majority that overturned net neutrality protections with the commission’s 2017 vote to eliminate what advocates identify as “The First Amendment of the Internet.”

On Tuesday, the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit issued a ruling that effectively upheld Trump’s FCC’s decision, even as one of the judges on the panel acknowledged that she was “deeply concerned that the result is unhinged from the realities of modern broadband service.”

“With this decision, the Court demonstrates it just doesn’t ‘get it’ when it comes to an open internet,” says former FCC Commissioner Michael Copps, who now works with Common Cause on media issues. “Without net neutrality rules, Comcast, Verizon, and AT&T are in the saddle and consumers are being ridden to higher prices, internet throttling, blocking, and slow-lane traffic.” …

The court’s ruling, Copps points out, “reverses the FCC’s decision to preempt state net neutrality laws, making clear that states are free to pass such legislation in order to protect their residents. The states thus retain their ability to fill the void caused by the repeal of federal net neutrality rules. California has already passed the gold standard for state net neutrality legislation, and other states should follow that model.”