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The Sixth Circuit US Court of Appeals said it would temporarily block the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) restored net neutrality rules.
The court paused the rules believing that internet service providers (ISPs) would be likely to win a legal challenge to the broadband regulation. Oral arguments in the case are slated for late October or early November.
The FCC hadn’t satisfied a “high bar” for instituting these net neutrality rules, the court said in its decision. It argued that the agency needed Congress to authorize this kind of change.
The court had already paused the rules on July 12th while it weighed the merits of telecoms’ challenges.
FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel characterized the appeals court’s finding as a “setback,” but that her commission would still push for net neutrality.
The regulations require that ISPs treat all legal internet traffic equally. They can’t block or throttle connections to limit access to competing services. Companies also can’t engage in paid prioritization, where customers have to pay extra to get the best possible speeds for a given site or service.
Telecom companies have previously succeeded in shutting down net neutrality rules. The FCC under Tom Wheeler enacted these rules in 2015, but that was undone in December 2017 when recently appointed Commissioner and former Verizon counsel Ajit Pai struck them down as part of a wider deregulation push. There were concerns about manipulation of the process, including a flood of fake anti-neutrality public comments that Pai’s FCC refused to help investigate.
The appeals court’s move doesn’t necessarily mark an end to net neutrality in the US. However, those measures might not last unless enough legislators support the concept. The 2024 presidential election in November could prove pivotal in that light.
