ISPs have been trying to overturn California’s network neutrality decision. The problem is finding a judge to hear the case.
ISPs are amusingly having a hard time trying to reverse the California network neutrality decision. This latest instalment of the US network neutrality fight has been going on since 2017 when the FCC gutted network neutrality during the disastrous Trump administration. Network neutrality was overturned under the lie that network neutrality is a “government takeover”. That blatantly obvious lie was eaten up by the ridiculously gullible right wing supporters who idiotically cheered the move on to the horror of not just tech advocates and supporters, but to the entire world as well.
With the rules overturned, ISPs were practically falling over themselves to implement fast lanes, filter out traffic they don’t like on their network, and ransoming websites to either pay up or see their websites slow down to a crawl for American viewers. They even hacked and slashed jobs for good measure in the process. The free and open Internet in the US seemed to be on the verge of collapse in the US with ISPs effectively taking control of everything you see and do.
Unfortunately for ISPs, California lawmakers saw pillars holding the Internet up crumbling and chose to do something about it. In straight up defiance to the FCC, California passed network neutrality laws in 2018. It was defiance because the FCC also implemented rules that said that state rights don’t matter and that states are not allowed to save network neutrality and the Internet as a whole. Seeing the cash cow suddenly drying up so quickly, ISPs sued to block network neutrality in the state.
The lawsuit itself didn’t go well for ISPs. While the lawsuit was ongoing, ISPs filed to have permission to skirt network neutrality laws while the case proceeded. That motion was, thankfully, denied. Eventually, ISPs lost their case.
To this day, ISPs are still trying to fight network neutrality. Those ISPs have apparently run into a rather interesting problem. That problem is trying to find a judge willing to hear their case. From ArsTechnica:
The broadband industry has lost another attempt to block California’s net neutrality law.
After ISP lobby groups’ motion for a preliminary injunction was denied last year in US District Court for the Eastern District of California, they appealed to the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. A three-judge panel unanimously upheld the ruling against the broadband industry in January, after which the industry groups petitioned for a rehearing with all of the appellate court’s judges (called an “en banc” hearing).
The answer came back Wednesday: No judges on the appeals court thought the broadband industry’s petition for a rehearing was even worth voting on.
“The full court has been advised of the petition for rehearing en banc and no judge has requested a vote on whether to rehear the matter en banc. The petition for rehearing en banc is denied,” the order said.
California can thus continue enforcing its net neutrality law while the case continues.
You can almost hear Nelson’s “Ha-Ha” line while reading that.
So, it looks like network neutrality, despite the nomination delays at the FCC, is going to continue for now. That is definitely good news for American’s who use the Internet (re: just about everyone these days). Hopefully, network neutrality will continue to survive despite seemingly being held on by a thread at this point.
Drew Wilson on Twitter: @icecube85 and Facebook.
