(Bloomberg) — U.S. regulators have reinstated net neutrality rules that aim to ensure that everything on the Internet is equally accessible, regaining authority over broadband service and opening the way to legal challenges .
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The Federal Communications Commission’s Democratic majority has adopted rules prohibiting broadband providers from interfering with web traffic. Their vote restores regulations that were gutted in 2017 by FCC Republicans.
FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel led the 3-2 vote to finalize the rules she announced in September, kicking off a new fight.
Regulations passed Thursday prohibit cable and phone providers such as Comcast Corp. and AT&T Inc. from blocking or slowing the flow of information on the Internet, or to sites that compete with them, including Google and Netflix Inc. They also prohibit telecommunications companies from granting preferential treatment. in the form of “fast lanes” — for example, allowing a business partner’s website to load faster than others.
Read more: Why Trump’s FCC rejected Obama’s net neutrality rules: QuickTake
Broadband providers and Republicans opposed the new rules, saying the broadband market works well and the new regulations invite government intervention in internet operations. Both FCC Republicans voted against the proposal Thursday.
Democrats have defended Net neutrality since the presidency of Barack Obama. They won their chance to act with the arrival of the FCC majority that followed Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election.
Rosenworcel’s decision to reinstate the rules has sparked new debate, although the issue has attracted less attention than before.
The regulations adopted Thursday classify broadband as an essential public service, along with telephone service. They will come into force after being officially published in the coming weeks.
There’s a “100 percent” chance that a challenge will be filed in court, said Marc Martin, a telecommunications attorney at Washington-based Perkins Coie.
“I expect opponents will seek to overturn these rules very quickly,” Martin said in an interview.
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