California Senate Approves Strictest Net Neutrality Rules In U.S. (AVN)

Read the full article by Michael French at AVN.com

Nationwide net neutrality rules that guarantee equal access to internet data for everyone are set to be rolled back at a national level on June 11—but Californians may not need to worry about that.

The senate in the country’s most populous state, which is also the world’s fifth-largest economy, voted on Wednesday to impose net neutrality rules that go even further than the Obama-era regulations imposed in 2015 but repealed by a party-line FCC vote in December.

The bill, SB 822, was given the thumbs-up by a 26-12 vote in the California Senate, but must now gain approval from the state assembly before reaching the desk of Governor Jerry Brown for his signature.

While numerous states have taken measures to protect net neutrality rules since the December FCC vote, in which the commission’s three Republicans overruled its two Democrats in abolishing the net neutrality protections, the proposed California law is the broadest of any of them. Not only would the law reinstate the Obama-era rules for internet access providers, it adds new restrictions on service providers not covered by the 2015 rules.