 For the first time in a long time, we have some really encouraging news as it relates to the issue of net neutrality You know folks who want a free and open internet. We lost during the Trump years Ajit Pai and his FTC repealed net neutrality and Unfortunately, a federal judge upheld that repealed now We got a small victory when a judge struck down the provision and his repeal that allowed states or stopped states rather from enacting their own net neutrality laws So when you have really large popular states like California and New York enact their own net neutrality laws It kind of throws a wrench in the telecoms plans to Section off portions of the internet and sell it for more money But now it seems like the pendulum is swinging in the opposite direction because Joe Biden is naming a Strong net neutrality advocate the permanent FCC chair Of course, I'm talking about Jessica Rosenwurzel So as McKenna Kelly of the Verge explains President Joe Biden named Acting Federal Communications Commissioner chair Jessica Rosenwurzel to officially head the agency on Tuesday propping her up as the administration's leader to tackle broadband expansion and net neutrality Biden also nominated progressive GG Sohn as the third Democrat for the bench both Rosenwurzel and Sohn broadly support the re-institution of net neutrality Sohn who founded the left-leaning tech nonprofit public knowledge Previously advised former chair Tom Wheeler during the initial net neutrality fight at a May Verge event Sohn suggested that the FCC regulate broadband even further under new net neutrality rules urging the agency to enforce new pricing Principles and make it even easier for states and localities to build out their own broadband networks to compete with larger providers As Rosenwurzel and Sohn's nomination progress Republicans will likely use future confirmation hearings to cast doubt on the administration's plans to re-implement net neutrality since the Trump FCC under chairman g pies leadership rolled back the rules in 2017 conservatives have argued that rulemaking never led to any nightmare scenarios previously predicted by Democrats and progressives These include ISPs like AT&T and Verizon blocking certain lanes of traffic for consumers now that last paragraph is really important Because Republicans even if you know Democrats take a lot of money from the telecoms Republicans are very clearly taking the side. They don't support net neutrality In fact back in 2017 Ted Cruz even wrote an op-ed calling for the FCC to block states from implementing their own net neutrality rules So now they're trying to say well, look you still have a free and open internet We all do so why do we need to redo these rules? But it's interesting because Comcast AT&T they spent millions of dollars lobbying to repeal net neutrality So for whatever reason they really wanted it passed and then a wrench was thrown in their plans As I stated at the beginning of this video where you have California and New York huge markets Institute their own net neutrality rules So the reason why they wanted to preempt states from passing their own net neutrality laws and why that was part of the agide Pies 2017 repeal was because you need Uniformity if you're gonna break up the internet and sell it, you know sell an entertainment package a social media package You want to make sure you could sell it to everyone in the United States and ideally, California, New York Where there are the most people so you know the debate was never over it's it's kind of been sitting in limbo and We don't even know the outcome of the investigation into fraud committed at the behest of ISP providers During the comment period for agide pies repeal of net neutrality If you'll remember there were fake comments submitted using people's identity saying I don't support net neutrality I support a free and open Internet Therefore I want to repeal net neutrality and I support agide pies free and open Internet It was Orwellian it was double-speak and there were my viewers who commented and said look my identity is being used Some to submit comments at the behest of Verizon when I support net neutrality I don't support what they're doing So Republicans are gonna use this disingenuous argument but what matters is the makeup of the FCC and The only thing that Republicans can do at this point is they can try to delay delay delay They're gonna fight this confirmation I think that the telecom industry is gonna be lobbying hard against gg So and Jessica Rosenwurzel, but I think that the worst that they can do is Delay their confirmations into 2022 to kind of make the new net neutrality rules that are bound to come up Just take a little bit longer Maybe we could just push it down the line and see what happens in 2022 if Republicans retake control of the house If you know, we have more seats in the Senate to vote away their confirmation I don't know what they want to do but they want to fight this and it's nice because knowing that this battle is ahead You have Jessica Rosenwurzel and gg so and saying we support net neutrality and yes We want to not only reinstate net neutrality, but when it comes to gg so She wants local governments to be able to create their own broadband networks, which I mean if this happened nationwide The issue would be solved permanently because if we no longer have to rely exclusively on these monopolies like Comcast or Verizon for our internet Then it doesn't matter what they do they can sell these Factioned-off portions of the internet to us For more money, but if we have our own publicly owned broadband in our town then who cares would Comcast us Now the reason why they haven't reinstated net neutrality yet is because the FCC has effectively been deadlocked since Biden took office So currently there are two Republicans and there's only two Democrats on the FCC There's Jeffrey Sparks and Jessica Rosenwurzel But together they can't create their own net neutrality rules because if they do then it's a 2-2 vote it's not going to pass but now with Biden naming a third that gives them the majority and They now are free to do what they want to do and what they've been broadcasting that they want to do Reinstate net neutrality and what's nice is that Biden is more involved in this process than Trump was so Trump's FCC with the jeep I I mean a jeep I was kind of this actor who did what he wanted He had a lot of authority Trump was indifferent to the process There were tweets that he made that led me to believe that he had no idea what net neutrality was But Joe Biden is actually more involved he wants net neutrality reinstated in fact back in July He signed an executive order calling on the FCC to restore the Obama era net neutrality rules Which both Jeffrey Sparks and Jessica Rosenwurzel Supported and they were glad that he did this they praised his executive order so good on Biden for doing that He gets credit where it's due my only gripe is that I don't know why he waited until October To make the acting FCC chair the permanent FCC chair and to fill that open seat and give Democrats on the FCC the majority so that way they can be in state net neutrality, but either way he's doing the right thing He's appointing the right people for the job who actually care about a real free and open internet And who aren't gonna do what Comcast and Verizon and AT&T want them to do and You love to see it look This is a win that net neutrality advocates haven't gotten in a really long time So to see things swing back in our direction, even if this is only a temporary victory I think that what a GPI did in 2017 being so brazen at this regarding what the people clearly didn't want him to do I Think that he hurt What the telecoms want long-term right because had he not been so brazen at this regarding what we want People wouldn't have even contemplated the need for local municipal broadband that wouldn't be a thing We're talking about it now because people are desperate for alternatives because they want the internet to remain the way that it is free and open And so, you know long term it's nice to have people like Gigi who see this trajectory what we want is to make it easier to have our own Public broadband in our own towns and that would be the permanent solution to this issue So this is really really good news if you've been following this issue for years now And I know that many of my viewers have been this is finally Looking good for us and sure things may change in 2024. It could swing back in the opposite direction with a new Republican president who appoints a different FCC chair But for now it's looking great and I think that's cause for celebration