US Government to Fight Californian Net Neutrality

The US Department of Justice has submitted a lawsuit challenging the State of California on net neutrality.

It asserts that the Federal Government is the only entity which can legislate on matters of net neutrality, as states having conflicting rules on the practice is unhelpful.

US Attorney General Jeff Sessions said: “under the Constitution, states do not regulate interstate commerce—the federal government does.

“Once again the California legislature has enacted an extreme and illegal state law attempting to frustrate federal policy.

“The Justice Department should not have to spend valuable time and resources to file this suit today, but we have a duty to defend the prerogatives of the federal government and protect our Constitutional order.”

Commentators have suggested that not having net neutrality implemented at the federal level has a negative impact on niche websites.

Some LGBTQ dating sites, for example, are low-traffic but crucial services for many people.

Net neutrality also prevents internet service providers from favouring large, high bandwidth sites like Netflix over startups in the same space.

Favouring larger sites could cause slower speeds on new entrants’ services – this has been described as the big players “pulling up the ladder”.

In July, India adopted strong net neutrality recommendations made in November 2017 by the Telecom Regulatory Association of India (TRAI).

Read more here.