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posted by chromas on Saturday September 01 2018, @11:45PM   Printer-friendly
from the gold-standard-from-the-golden-state dept.

California passes strongest net neutrality law in the country

California's legislature has approved a bill being called the strongest net neutrality law in the US. The bill would ban internet providers from blocking and throttling legal content and prioritizing some sites and services over others. It would apply these restrictions to both home and mobile connections.

That would essentially restore the net neutrality rules enacted federally under former President Barack Obama, which were later repealed by the Federal Communications Commission under the watch and guidance of current chairman Ajit Pai. But this bill actually goes further than those rules with an outright ban on zero-rating — the practice of offering free data, potentially to the advantage of some companies over others — of specific apps. Zero-rating would, however, still be allowed as long as the free data applies to an entire category of apps. So an ISP could offer free data for all video streaming apps, but not just for Netflix. [...] The Electronic Frontier Foundation called the final legislation "a gold standard net neutrality bill."

Now, the bill heads to the governor's desk. California Gov. Jerry Brown hasn't said whether he'll sign the legislation, but it's garnered the support of top state Democrats, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Kamala Harris.

Also at Engadget.


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  • (Score: 2) by sjames on Sunday September 02 2018, @05:02PM (1 child)

    by sjames (2882) on Sunday September 02 2018, @05:02PM (#729574) Journal

    I would favor that sort of approach, but as strong as the resistance is to net neutrality, the resistance to the last mile as a utility is at least an order of magnitude louder. Hence my comment about wishes and horses.

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  • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday September 03 2018, @04:21AM

    by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Monday September 03 2018, @04:21AM (#729747) Homepage Journal

    Yeah, I'm giving the proper solution not the easy one.

    --
    My rights don't end where your fear begins.