Order Published Today Starts Clock for Lawmakers to Move Forward on Reversing Repeal
Thursday, February 22, 2018
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The FCC’s repeal of net neutrality regulations was officially published today in the Federal Register, giving the go-ahead for proponents of net neutrality to move forward on efforts to restore the protections preserving the open and competitive nature of the internet for all consumers. Consumers Union, the advocacy division of Consumer Reports, urged Senators to support Sen. Ed Markey’s effort to reverse the FCC’s repeal, which has already garnered bipartisan support from 50 Senators.
Jonathan Schwantes, senior policy counsel for Consumers Union, said, “When the FCC chose to repeal net neutrality, it ignored the millions of Americans that filed comments to preserve an open internet, as well as the overwhelming majority of Americans who — in poll after poll — support these strong standards. Now that the repeal has been published in the Federal Register, Congress has the opportunity to do what the FCC didn’t. We urge Senators to listen to the consumers they represent and vote to restore these critical net neutrality rules to ensure that internet service providers aren’t the gatekeepers to the internet.”
A recent nationally-representative survey by Consumer Reports said the majority of Americans support net neutrality rules to prevent internet service providers from blocking or discriminating against lawful content on the internet. The CR survey found 57 percent of Americans supported the net neutrality rules, while 16 percent opposed them and 27 percent did not state an opinion. The survey showed strong opposition to practices by providers that were prohibited by the rules, such as the 67 percent who disagreed that providers should be able to choose which websites, apps or streaming services customers can access.