California State Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) and several other senators and assembly members introduced a comprehensive Net Neutrality bill on Wednesday to prohibit internet access providers from blocking or throttling websites and online services that prioritize access to certain sites over others.
If passed, this could create a regime stricter than the Obama-era rules of discriminating against content.
Wiener’s bill is the latest move by state and local officials to create their own net neutrality rules in the absence of federal regulations. It would ban broadband providers from exempting certain content from data limits, a concept known as “zero rating.” Some companies would no longer be allowed to exempt some of their services from certain customers.
Guests:
Ernesto Falcon, legislative counsel for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a San Francisco-based non-profit digital rights group; he tweets
Steve Effros, former attorney-advisor at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from 1971 through 1975, and cable industry analyst and lawyer based in Virginia; he was the president of Cable Telecommunications Association, an industry trade association