Bill That Would Restore Net Neutrality Moves Forward Despite Telecom's Best Efforts To Kill It

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: Last month, Democrats introduced a simple three page bill that would do one thing: restore FCC net neutrality rules and the agency's authority over ISPs, both stripped away by a hugely-controversial decision by the agency in late 2017. Tuesday morning, the Save the Internet Act passed through a key House committee vote and markup session -- despite some last-minute efforts by big telecom to weaken the bill.

'Net neutrality is coming back with a vengeance,' said Evan Greer, deputy director of consumer group Fight for the Future said in a statement. 'Politicians are slowly learning that they can't get away with shilling for big telecom anymore,' Greer said. 'We're harnessing the power of the Internet to save it, and any lawmaker who stands in our way will soon face the wrath of their constituents, who overwhelmingly want lawmakers to restore these basic protections.' Greer told Motherboard that several last minute amendments were introduced by lawmakers during the markup period in an attempt to water down the bill, but all were pulled in the wake of widespread public interest in the hearing. 'It seems like the GOP retreated a bit given after the huge swell of public support,' said Greer, who told Motherboard that 300,000 people watched the organization's livestream of the markup process. That attention 'really emboldened the Democrats and shored up the ones that were wobbling,' Greer said.

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