Update: At 5pm on September 30, 7 hours before the deadline, Senate Bill 822 was signed into law, and California enacted the strongest net neutrality protections in the country, 10 months after the FCC repeal in December of 2017.

After a saga worthy of a Greek sailing epic, the California Legislature sent Senate Bill 822,  the strongest statewide Net Neutrality bill yet to the states governor, Jerry Brown, for a signature.

If enacted, Senate Bill 822 would entirely restore consumer protections lost in the December 2017 FCC repeal driven by Ajit Pai to the people of the state that created the Internet.

The bill did not have an easy path, with a competing bill put out by former CA Senate speaker Kevin De Leon, intense opposition from an ISP lobbying juggernaut used to success in Sacramento, and a June disembowlment at the hands of the Assembly Communications and Conveyance committee.

But the people fought back and in the end, prevailed.

Governor Jerry Brown is expected to sign the bill.

Somewhere on this website, you will probably find every argument ever made in support of Net Neutrality.

But we think this one, by The Media Action Grassroots Network’s Steven Renderos (MA is a proud founding member of the network) is really all that needs to be said:

“The battle for net neutrality is really a continuation of the age-old fight for our right to dissent.”

[pdf-embedder url=”https://media-alliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/SB822LetterFINAL.pdf”]