Mozilla Files Suit Against FCC to Protect Net Neutrality

Today, Mozilla filed a petition in federal court in Washington, DC against the Federal Communications Commission for its recent decision to overturn the 2015 Open Internet Order.

The internet is a global, public resource. It relies on the core principle of net neutrality (that all internet traffic be treated equally) to exist. If that principle is removed - with only some content and services available or with roadblocks inserted by ISPs to throttle or control certain services - the value and impact of that resource can be impaired or destroyed.

Ending net neutrality could end the internet as we know it. That's why we are committed to fighting the order. In particular, we filed our petition today because we believe the recent FCC decision violates both federal law as well as harms internet users and innovators. In fact, it really only benefits large Internet Service Providers.

As we have said many times over the years, we'll keep fighting for the open internet to ensure everyone has access to the entire internet and do everything in our power to protect net neutrality. In addition to our court challenge, we are also taking steps to ask Congress and the courts to fix the broken policies.

As a process note, the FCC decision made it clear that suits should be filed 10 days after it is published in the Federal Register, which has not yet occurred. However, federal law is more ambiguous. Due to the importance of this issue, even though we believe the filing date should be later, we filed in the event a court determines the appropriate date is today. The FCC or a court may accept this order or require us and others to refile at a later date. In fact, we're urging them to use the later date. In either instance, we will continue to challenge the order in the courts.

It is imperative that all internet traffic be treated equally, without discrimination against content or type of traffic - that's the how the internet was built and what has made it one of the greatest inventions of all time.

You can help by calling your elected officials and urge them to support an open internet. Net neutrality is not a partisan or U.S. issue and the decision to remove protections for net neutrality is the result of broken processes, broken politics, and broken policies. We need politicians to decide to protect users and innovation online rather than increase the power of a few large ISPs.

The post Mozilla Files Suit Against FCC to Protect Net Neutrality appeared first on The Mozilla Blog.