New net neutrality legislation would ban blocking and throttling of data
Last week the FCC voted to kill net neutrality regulations, which has prompted a huge backlash among Americans and some legislators in Washington DC. Republican Representative Marsha Blackburn from Tennessee has now introduced legislation that will ban ISPs from blocking or throttling specific content.
The new legislation doesn’t address other concerns that net neutrality did address, like fast lanes for certain content. ISPs would be required to disclose the terms of their service to customers and would finally put a federal law in place that isn’t subject to the whims of one FCC commissioner to another.
“An open internet and preserving that open internet is what people want to see happen. Let’s preserve it. Let’s nail it down. Let’s stop the ping-ponging from one FCC commission to another. This is something where the Congress should act.”
Representative Blackburn isn’t the only lawmaker to call for legislation, either. Senator John Thune has also publicly called for legislation that would make the rules of net neutrality more clear and less subject to regulatory capture by taking the decision out of the hands of the FCC.