On Tuesday, Jan. 23, Tennessee Senate Minority Leader Lee Harris, D-Memphis, and Rep. John Ray Clemmons, D-Nashville, introduced legislation centered on keeping net neutrality among internet service providers.
This bill would force internet providers to adhere to the terms of net neutrality or leave their companies open to lawsuits and loss of state and local contracts.
Net Neutrality states that an internet service provider should allow access to all sites on the internet without prejudice or favor. Today, this is no longer true. As of December 2017, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) had voted to end net neutrality, giving internet service providers free rein to charge more for faster connection speeds or to block certain websites. However, the introduction of Harris’ and Clemmons’ bill may be a turning point in this story.
According to the Tennessean, the bill would give any person the ability to challenge their internet service provider before the Tennessee Public Utility Commission for prioritizing a website for money, and it would bar any form of Tennessee government from contracting an internet service provider that refuses to follow the bill’s guidelines.
“Washington bureaucrats should never tell Americans what kinds of internet services they can and can’t buy,” said U.S. Rep. Diane Black, R-Tenn., to WKRN.com.
Many other Tennessee lawmakers have supported net neutrality long before the FCC vote ever occurred.
“House Republicans will continue to stand for an open internet with regulatory certainty free from blocking and throttling,” said U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., to WKRN.com.
This has caused considerable debate and reactions from many other government officials as well. Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, a Democrat, said that “telecommunications companies run the risk of losing state contracts if they block or charge more for quicker delivery of websites to customers,” according to the Times Free Press in Chattanooga.
