A federal appeals court Tuesday upheld a White House-supported effort to make internet service providers treat all web traffic equally, delivering a major defeat to cable and telephone companies.Huzzah!
The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals sustained the FCC's latest net neutrality rules, which consumer groups and President Barack Obama had backed as essential to preventing broadband providers from blocking or degrading the Internet traffic.
...The decision marks a victory for FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, who led the agency's Democratic majority in approving the rules in February 2015 over the objections of the agency's two GOP commissioners. The rules apply utility-style regulation originally written for telephone companies to both land-based and wireless Internet services.
Wheeler on Tuesday celebrated the court ruling, calling it a "victory for consumers and innovators who deserve unfettered access to the entire web."
"It ensures the internet remains a platform for unparalleled innovation, free expression and economic growth," the FCC chairman said in a statement. "After a decade of debate and legal battles, today's ruling affirms the Commission's ability to enforce the strongest possible internet protections — both on fixed and mobile networks — that will ensure the internet remains open, now and in the future."
Because telecom companies and Republicans hate this decision—Ted Cruz once called it "Obamacare for the internet" omg—this fight is not over. The decision will be appealed. And hopefully they will lose then, too!
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