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DoJ Sues to Block California’s Net Neutrality Law

© Flickr / Stephen MelkisethianWednesday's announcement by FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler marked a big victory for advocates of net neutrality.
Wednesday's announcement by FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler marked a big victory for advocates of net neutrality. - Sputnik International
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The Department of Justice sued California Governor Jerry Brown just hours after he signed a bill into law mandating net neutrality in the state on Sunday.

The law would have overturned — at least in the state of California — the repealment of net neutrality rules on the federal level in December. Net neutrality means that internet service providers have to treat content and various websites neutrally, so they can't throttle or prioritize the speed at which anything on the web is accessed.

"Under the Constitution, states do not regulate interstate commerce — the federal government does," US Attorney General Jeff Sessions said. "Once again the California legislature has enacted an extreme and illegal state law attempting to frustrate federal policy."

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Ajit Pai — largely credited with the repealment of the rules — said, "I'm pleased the Department of Justice has filed this suit."

"I look forward to working with my colleagues and the Department of Justice to ensure the internet remains ‘unfettered by Federal or State regulation,' as federal law requires, and the domain of engineers, entrepreneurs, and technologists, not lawyers and bureaucrats."

The Department of Justice called California's bill "unlawful and anti-consumer." 

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The law, which was set to go into effect on the first of January next year, may wind up being blocked by the lawsuit.

"There are still 51 million people in the US that don't have access to reliable internet and many others without any internet access," web developer, technologist and net neutrality supporter Chris Garaffa told Sputnik News before the rules were officially repealed. "The internet should be a basic human right. Also, internet service providers are a monopoly."

He went on to argue that repealing net neutrality would open up the internet service market to even more monopolization.

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