Federal Communications Commission voted to restore net neutrality secured in April, but the process isn’t as smooth-sailing as its supporters would like. according to Reuters and Fast Company, the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit temporarily blocked the rules from going into effect because a lawsuit by broadband providers challenging their reinstatement is likely to succeed. A group of cable, telecom and mobile Internet providers sued the FCC shortly after three Democratic commissioners voted to restore net neutrality protections.
Under net neutrality rules, broadband services are classified as essential communications resources. It gives the FCC the authority to regulate broadband and ban ISPs from offering paid prioritization, which some ISPs use to extract additional fees from bandwidth companies like Netflix. It will also prevent ISPs from blocking or slowing traffic to specific websites.
Opponents of net neutrality have long argued that the rules would put off investors. A group of providers that recently filed suit Against the FCC, it said restoring the rules would force them to “give up valuable new services, incur prohibitive compliance costs and pay more to acquire capital.” In its ruling, the court wrote that “the commission has failed to set a high bar for applying such rules” and that “net neutrality is a fundamental issue that likely requires clear authorization from Congress.”
Commission first Approved net neutrality rules in 2015, although they have been in the works for years before that. But the FCC was there during the Trump administration voted to withdraw the rules and reclassifying broadband Internet services to Title I, which means the agency will have less oversight of the industry. The rules were supposed to go into effect on July 22 after the FCC voted to reinstate them, but the court prevented them from taking effect Until August 5. Now net neutrality supporters will have to wait a little longer. The appeals court has scheduled oral arguments on the issue for late October or early November, before or during the 2024 US presidential election.
