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Washington State Affirms Net Neutrality

Mark Fleischmann  |  Mar 15, 2018

The State of Washington has become the first state to pass its own full-fledged net neutrality law, grabbing the regulatory reins from the FCC, which had axed its own net neutrality rules a few months ago.

The law bars ISPs from prioritizing, throttling, or blocking online content. Net neutrality has never been legislated on a state level before and whether the law will survive legal challenges remains to be seen.

Three other states — Montana, New York, and New Jersey — have passed more limited laws requiring net neutrality for ISPs doing business with state governments.

So far, the number of state attorneys general joining a lawsuit to challenge the FCC’s scuttling of net-neutrality rules has risen to 23.

COMMENTS
jabjc's picture
Submitted by jabjc on March 16, 2018 - 10:19am

I don't understand why people don't want prioritization of internet traffic. Giving high priority to voice, multimedia (video and audio) should help to eliminate the backbone portion of traffic congestion. It should not cost a lot as these are just software settings for flagging the traffic by type and allow this traffic through based on prioritization settings. This would leave your local network as the probable cause lags/dropped packets, etc.

Throttling is another issue, and I don't generally agree with throttling except under certain cases. And I do agree there should be no reason to block traffic unless it is used for criminal type activity.

Just my opinion...

Billy's picture
Submitted by Billy on March 17, 2018 - 5:33pm

The problem is that free distribution of ideas is what we need here. TV, who cares? The net could make or break the future of the worlds societies. What I see happening is throttling back any political ideas the elite do not like and lots of band width for the ideas they do like. Big Brother anyone? Guys, don't throw out the baby with the bath water.

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