Net neutrality has been gutted at the federal level by the FCC last month, and it caused a huge outcry throughout the entire country. It seems that state legislators are starting to take matters of net neutrality into their own hands.
According to a new report from Ars Technica, state legislators in California and Nebraska are proposing net neutrality laws to replace the US-wide ones that were repealed by the Federal Communications Commission. The FCC had repealed net neutrality last month and claimed that they had the authority to prevent state and local governments from enacting their own net neutrality rules.
A new Nebraska bill, introduced by Democratic Sen. Adam Morfeld of Lincoln, would bring net neutrality rules power to the state level. The bill says that “No internet service provide engaged int he provision of fixed or mobile broadband Internet access service shall impair or degrade lawful Internet traffic on the basis of content, application, or service or use of a non harmful device, subject to reasonable network management.”
The new proposal would ban paid prioritization, which is defined as directly or indirectly “favor[ing] some traffic over other raffia, including through use of techniques such as traffic shaping, prioritization, resource reservation, or other forms o preferential management, either in exchange for monetary or other consideration from a third party or to benefit an affiliated entity.” Paid prioritization would only be allowed if the ISP can demonstrate that it benefits the public and “would not harm the open nature” of Internet services.
