2:40 PM UPDATE: NEW YORK (AP) — State attorneys general are now threatening lawsuits against the federal government’s repeal of “net neutrality” rules.
New York’s attorney general says he’ll lead a multistate lawsuit to stop the Federal Communications Commission’s rollback of rules that guaranteed equal access to the internet. Democrat Eric Schneiderman has been investigating fake public comments submitted to the FCC during the net neutrality comment process.
Schneiderman says his analysis shows 2 million comments stole the identities of real Americans, including dead people and children.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, a Republican, said at a July FCC meeting that the raw number of comments wasn’t as important as the substance of issues raised
The Washington state attorney general has likewise vowed to sue over net neutrality.
—
UPDATE: NEW YORK (AP) — FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, a Republican who says his plan to repeal net neutrality will eliminate unnecessary regulation, called the internet the “greatest free-market innovation in history.” He added that it “certainly wasn’t heavy-handed government regulation” that’s been responsible for the internet’s “phenomenal” development. “Quite the contrary,” he says.
“What is the FCC doing today?” he asked. “Quite simply, we are restoring the light-touch framework that has governed the internet for most of its existence.”
Broadband providers, Pai says, will have stronger incentives to build networks, especially in underserved areas. Ending 2015 net neutrality rules, he says, will lead to a “free, more open internet.”
“The sky is not falling, consumers will remain protected and the internet will continue to thrive,” Pai says.
—
UPDATE: NEW YORK (AP) – The FCC votes on party lines to undo sweeping Obama-era `net neutrality’ rules that guaranteed equal access to internet.
—
NEW YORK (AP) — The FCC meeting was abruptly halted shortly before 1 p.m. during chairman Ajit Pai’s remarks and before the vote on net neutrality could take place. Pai said “on the advice of security, we need to take a brief break.”
Then the meetings’ live feed cut out. Representatives for the FCC could not immediately be reached for comment via email and phone.
Security officials evacuated the hearing room and searched it, then allowed everyone back in.
The meeting and livestream have since resumed.
Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. (Photo: CNN)
