What is the Net Neutrality and Broadband Justice Bill?

The new Net Neutrality and Broadband Justice Bill of 2022 is a piece of legislation that was introduced in Congress by Senators Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts and Ron Wyden of Oregon. 

The idea behind net neutrality, broadly speaking, is that the internet and the companies that provide it should be neutral and should not be beholden or prioritise specific regions or localities to turn a profit. 

Also Read: House Democrats introduce new Net Neutrality Bill

The bill is a short, two-page document that seeks to amend the Communication Act of 1934, particularly point 46, under Section 3(53). 

The change is simple. The bill seeks to expand the definition of the term “Telecommunications service” to include the following phrase: 

includes the offering of broadband internet access service, as defined in section 801, for a fee directly to the public, or to such classes of users as to be effectively available directly to the public, regardless of the facilities used.’’

The addition of this phrase might seem minor, however, it changes the classification of broadband services from Title I services to Title II services.

Also Read: Federal courts system breach being investigated by Justice Department

Currently, broadband services are classified as Title I services. That means that companies are not beholden to regulation like reporting throttling, blocking or paid prioritisation of internet traffic lanes. 

On the other hand, Title II services are heavily regulated, much the way a gas or an electric provider is. It expressly forbids the throttling, blocking and paid prioritisation of services while also being having to report issues like outages to the Federal Communications Commission. 

Also Read: US vs Huawei: Why the Chinese telecom giant has been asked to leave

The conversation around net neutrality and broadband internet first began in 2015, when Barrack Obama’s administration signed the Open Internet Order. The order was an attempt to make the internet a neutral space as well as make the legislation water tight so that it could not be circumvented.

However, the key point of the legislation was to rein in internet service providers and give consumers a way to lodge complaints about harmful business practices, a role which the Federal Trade Commission previously held domain over.