How California Can (and Must) Fight Trump’s FCC to Restore Net Neutrality

At the end of last year, the FCC adopted new rules reversing the Obama Administration policy of net neutrality. This rollback undermines a fundamental aspect of the Internet in a way that is disenfranchising millions of Californians. With DC moving in the wrong direction, Californians have to take swift, aggressive action to restore Internet rules that are fundamental to our economy and our way of life.

Net neutrality is a pretty simple concept. It means that Internet providers like Comcast, Verizon, and AT&T cannot dictate what content you can access online. Comcast, for example, cannot promote NBC content over ABC’s content, even though Comcast is affiliated with NBC. Comcast has to make them both equally available, at the same cost and at the same load times and speed. This has meant that users (not providers) of the Internet are in charge of what individuals view or do not view. This approach produced an era of unprecedented innovation, creativity, and public engagement.

Trump’s FCC has changed this. Big internet providers can now decide what people see online, and can charge them and content providers differently. Organizations that put up valuable content may be charged different amounts depending on whether the providers want to carry it. Subscribers who want to see the most popular and content-rich material on the Internet, will have to pay more as well. Those who can’t afford it, will get only the information that Verizon or AT&T chooses to promote.

Californians and our elected leaders can correct this federal policy failure, by using every available resource, of every branch of state government. Here’s how.

In court, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra has already filed suit, along with several other State attorneys general, challenging the basis of the FCC’s decision — that the Internet should be treated differently from other utilities, like phone service, where equal access is the norm. These AGs argue that the distinction is arbitrary and capricious, and an abuse of the FCC’s authority.

This issue is too significant, though, to rely on the courts alone to restore net neutrality. This week, Montana Governor Steve Bullock became the first Governor to issue an executive order effectively eliminating the worst effects of the Trump FCC rule. It requires that ISPs, as a condition of doing business with the state, do not discriminate among websites by blocking sites, applying price discrimination, throttling web content, or creating Internet fast lanes.

I urge Governor Brown to do the same thing. Unless ISPs want to lose the opportunity to serve the UC system, the CSU system, the Community College system, and every other element of California state government, they would need to maintain net neutrality.

The California legislature also has a vital role to play here in bringing back net neutrality. State Senator Scott Weiner has introduced a bill that would require providers to adopt net neutrality to receive any state funds. This is the rough legislative equivalent of the Montana executive order, and would buttress any executive action against a lawsuit by the internet service providers. I join with Senator Weiner in exhorting the California Legislature to fast-track this bill and get it on the Governor’s desk.

Finally, officeholders, candidates and commentators — all of us — need to raise our voices about net neutrality, and engage more citizens in the fight. Grassroots digital networks have already brought a big, active community together behind this cause. But this is only the beginning. Millions more Californians will be hurt if we don’t reverse Trump’s decision. As a state, we will not allow the Trump Administration to carve up the internet to favor some interests, and leave other people behind.

The greatest value of the internet comes from all of us — the information we share and distribute to everyone. When we cut off carriers or users, we weaken the Internet, we deprive society as a whole of the most complete information to learn and innovate, and we further stack the deck in the virtual world against those with the fewest resources in the physical world. As the sixth largest economy in the world and the birthplace of the Internet’s most powerful content, we owe this to the United States to restore the internet to everyone.

This is a tough problem we can solve. Let’s roll up our sleeves, California, and get it done together.

Lawyer, Diplomat, and Dad (not in that order)

Lawyer, Diplomat, and Dad (not in that order)