by
Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers
Part
4 - Net Neutrality in States and Local Communities
The
campaign for net neutrality is also working at the state and local
level. In more than half of the states, net neutrality protections
are moving forward.
In
California, Hawaii, New York, Montana and Vermont legislation is in
the works that would preserve internet neutrality. The FCC’s new
rule says states are not allowed to pass their own net neutrality
laws, but many are trying to do so with various legal workarounds. It
is likely these state and local actions will require litigation to be
put into place.
Governors
are also working to protect net neutrality. The first governor to act
was Montana’s Steve Bullock. Now governors in Vermont, Hawaii, New
Jersey and New York have signed executive orders requiring their
states to only do business with internet providers that abide by net
neutrality rules.
And
there is activity at the community level. A new map from Community
Networks shows that more communities than ever are building their own
broadband networks to end big telecom’s monopoly. They range from
large networks in Chattanooga, Tennessee to small town networks
connecting a few local businesses. The map includes more than 750
communities as of January 2018, including 55 publicly-owned municipal
networks serving 108 communities, 76 communities with publicly-owned
cable networks reaching most or all of the community, and 258
communities served by rural electric cooperatives, among others.
Nineteen states have barriers in place that discourage or prevent
local communities from creating publicly-owned local networks.
Source,
links:
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