Defying Pai’s FCC, Washington state passes law protecting net neutrality

Enlarge / Washington State Capitol Legislative Building in Olympia, Washington. (credit: Getty Images | VW Pics )

The Washington state legislature has approved a net neutrality law that applies to all wired and wireless Internet providers in the state and prohibits blocking, throttling, and paid prioritization.

The bill comes in response to the Federal Communications Commission decision in December 2017 to scrap federal net neutrality rules. The state bill still needs the signature of Governor Jay Inslee, who previously pledged to enforce net neutrality "under our own authority and under our own laws," calling it "a free speech issue as well as a business development issue."

Washington is apparently the first state whose legislature has passed a law that imposes net neutrality rules on all ISPs. The governors of five states had already decided to impose net neutrality restrictions on ISPs that provide Internet service to state agencies.

Read 10 remaining paragraphs | Comments