After the abolition of Obama-era net neutrality rules by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in mid-December of last year, the results of the changes have been relatively quiet, so far. Yet the heavy opposition that was put forth both by the public and politicians still persists through today. That December, after the repeal, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman took action and started the formal process of suing the FCC and the federal government by filing a petition to the U.S. Federal Court of Appeals Jan. 16, 2018.
A quick recap of the net neutrality regulations put in place in 2015 by the Obama administration: the regulations classified the Internet provided by companies as a public utility and required Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to treat all data equally, regardless of origin.
Schneiderman is not the only attorney general to oppose these repeals in a legal manner; he has since been joined by 22 other states to pursue legal action against the FCC.
Schneiderman is currently acting as the lead attorney in this case. Working alongside him are attorney generals from Calif., Conn., Del., Hawaii, Ill., Iowa, Ky., Maine, Md., Mass., Minn., Miss., N.M., N.C., Ore., Pa., R.I., Vt., Va., Wash. and the District of Columbia.
In the petition signed by all the states mentioned above, the lawsuit has been recognized and titled as an attempt at “Restoring Internet Freedom.”
The petition claims that the order put forth a repeal, saying the net neutrality rules not only violated federal law but also “the Constitution, the Communications Act of 1934, and FCC regulations promulgated thereunder,” and “conflicts with the notice-and-comment rulemaking requirements of 5 U.S.C § 553; and is otherwise contrary to law.”
This is not the only legal action that the FCC is facing due to the events resulting from their ruling last December and the events leading up to said ruling.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai was called to testify before Senate Aug. 16. Pai stood in defense of a claim made by the FCC about an event leading up to and potentially influencing the ruling to repeal net neutrality.
The FCC issued a statement by former FCC Chief Information Officer David Bray, claiming that comprehensive FCC “analysis” indicated that it was a malicious Direct Denial of Service (DDoS) attack that had caused their website to crash during the leadup to the repeal.
There have been emails that heavily suggest this DDoS attack was manufactured by the FCC itself. The FCC is also facing lawsuits from two nonprofit public interest groups, Free Press and Public Knowledge.
Those interested in the contents of the petition can learn more by searching: New York v. FCC, No. 17-18-1013.
