#NetNeutrality: California Senate Approves Strict Open-Internet Protections for the State

The Federal Communications Commission is moving forward with its plan to repeal the net neutrality protections put in place by the Obama administration in 2015. That has not stopped lawmakers in California from taking action to protect the open internet in their state.

On Wednesday, the California State Senate approved a bill that would impose even stricter rules than those put in place by President Barack Obama’s FCC to protect net neutrality. As Ars Technica reports, the vote happened just ahead of the FCC’s planned repeal date of June 11, less than two weeks from now. The bill, S.B. 822, was introduced by state Sen. Scott Wiener, a Democrat from San Francisco, in January. It would include a lot of the same provisions as the 2015 federal protections—a ban on throttling, blocking content and paid prioritization. It would also include a ban on paid data-cap exemptions. In addition, the bill prohibits “misleading marketing practices and enacts strong disclosure requirements to better inform consumers,” according to an announcement from Wiener.

S.B. 822 passed the California Senate with a vote of 23-12. All of the votes to approve came from Democrats. The 12 nos were from Republicans.

Now the bill just has to pass the State Assembly—which has a Democratic majority—as well as Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown.

Lawmakers in the state of New York are considering a similar bill.

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