Oregon Will Join Lawsuit Against FCC on Net Neutrality

Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum and her peers previously warned FCC it was acting based on fraudulent public input.

Multnomah County Library (Daniel Stindt)
By Nigel Jaquiss

The Federal Communications Commission voted 3 to 2 this morning to repeal the doctrine of "net neutrality."

The effect of that decision is to allow internet service providers to change the terms under which they do business, potentially treating different customers differently and charging them accordingly.

The providers, such as AT&T, say the move will spur investment and innovation, while consumer advocates fear the vote could lead to providers discriminating against some customers.

Yesterday, Oregon Attorney General and her peers from 17 states wrote to the FCC urging the commission to delay a vote because one million of the public comments the commission received on net neutrality had been determined to be fraudulent. (Disclosure: Rosenblum is married to Richard Meeker, the part-owner of WW's parent company.)

“Changing the rules around net neutrality will have major implications for commerce and almost every aspect of modern life,” Rosenblum said in a statement. “Before that is allowed to happen, we must get to the bottom of whether fraud was committed in the FCC comment process on behalf of unsuspecting Americans.”

After the commission voted today, New York AG Eric Schneiderman told Tech Crunch that he and his colleagues who signed the letter yesterday are preparing to sue the FCC to block today's vote.

"Today's new rule would enable ISPs to charge consumers more to access sites like Facebook and Twitter and give them the leverage to degrade high quality of video streaming until and unless somebody pays them more money," Scheiderman said in a statement quoted by Tech Crunch. "Even worse, today's vote would enable ISPs to favor certain viewpoints over others."

Update 4:30 pm

Rosenblum's spokeswoman, Kristina Edmunson, says Oregon is planning to join the proposed lawsuit against the FCC.

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