In the waning hours of 2017, the Federal Communications Commission voted to repeal the 2015 Open Internet Order, ending net neutrality protections for the millions of Americans who support them. The fallout of that decision continued all throughout 2018, with attempts to reverse the FCC in Congress, new state laws and governor executive orders written to secure state-level protections, court cases, and ever-increasing evidence that a world without the Open Internet Order is simply a worse one.
The story surrounding net neutrality has always been one of the greed of the largest Internet Service Providers (ISPs) versus the desires of the majority of people, the actual way the Internet is structured, and the ideal of a free and open Internet. Every win this year represented a win by actual people speaking out over big ISP money.
In the States
The so-called “Restoring Internet Freedom Order” didn’t go into effect until June 11, 2018, but states started preparing for the FCC’s abdication of oversight over the Internet early on. State leaders immediately committed before the ink was dry to stand up for net neutrality. A net neutrality bill, S.B. 822 was introduced the very first day of the California legislative session. Governor Bullock of Montana issued his Executive Order only weeks later in January. By March, Washington’s state legislature had overwhelmingly passed net neutrality legislation to the Governor. In April, Oregon signed into law H.B. 4155, which required any ISP getting money from the state to adhere to net neutrality principals.
California’s S.B. 822 turned out to be a particularly contentious battle, as that was the strongest bill moving this year. After passing in the California Senate, a state Assembly hearing gutted it, removing the strong protections that made the bill a net neutrality gold standard. But Californians spoke out en…