The attorneys general of 22 states today filed a lawsuit against the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for abolishing net neutrality, the principle that guaranteed the internet as a public service, and asked for its restitution.
The group of attorneys general asked the District Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia to review the order approved by the FCC on December 14, declare it “illegal” and withdraw it, considering that it is “arbitrary and capricious”, as indicated the document itself.
The leader of the action, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, reiterated that “an open internet and the free exchange of ideas it allows is a fundamental aspect” for the country’s “democratic process”.
The suit was signed by the attorneys general of New York, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, the state of Washington and the District of Columbia.
Net neutrality was the principle that sought to guarantee it as a public service with equal access for users and that had been protected to date with a norm approved by former President Barack Obama in 2015.
With the new regulation, which could revolutionize the market, internet providers could block or slow down access traffic to any website, regardless of its content, including media, video platforms such as Netflix or pages of opposing ideologies. .
For their part, the Democrats will take a proposal to revoke the rule in the Senate through the Law of Review of Congress, which allows streamlining a legislative process to end the plan then approved by the Commission.
The proposal was consolidated today by garnering the backing of all the Senate Democrats, who are in a minority of 49 to 51 with respect to the Republicans in the Upper House, after last week exceeded the minimum of thirty needed to force the vote
In addition to the progressives, the proposal has also captivated the Republican Susan Collins, so it would only take one more senator to enjoy the majority they need to overcome voting in the chamber, although the broadest conservative majority in the House of Representatives hinders its final success.
The approval of the FCC of last December generated the rejection of the opposition, of associations in defense of the consumers, companies and, even, some voices from the republican rows.
The FCC is an independent body of the federal government, in which the republicans also have a majority and which Ajit Pai, the president-elect, Donald Trump, holds after taking office last January.
