Tech companies, states spar with government over net neutrality

FILE - In this Thursday, Dec. 14, 2017, file photo, a person with a smartphone enters the Federal Communications Commission building in Washington. Tech companies and nearly two dozen U.S. states clashed with the government in federal court Friday, Feb. 1, 2019, over the repeal of net neutrality, a set of Obama-era rules aimed at preventing big internet providers from discriminating against certain technology and services. The action rolling back the neutrality rules "is a stab in the heart of the Communications Act," said attorney Pantelis Michalopoulos, referring to the Depression-era law that established the FCC. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File) FILE - In this Thursday, Dec. 14, 2017, file photo, a person with a smartphone enters the Federal Communications Commission building in Washington. Tech companies and nearly two dozen U.S. states clashed with the government in federal court Friday, Feb. 1, 2019, over the repeal of net neutrality, a set of Obama-era rules aimed at preventing big internet providers from discriminating against certain technology and services. The action rolling back the neutrality rules "is a stab in the heart of the Communications Act," said attorney Pantelis Michalopoulos, referring to the Depression-era law that established the FCC. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

By Associated Press February 2, 2019 4 min read

WASHINGTON (AP) – Tech companies and nearly two dozen U.S. states clashed with the government in federal court Friday over the repeal of net neutrality, a set of Obama-era rules aimed at preventing big internet providers from discriminating against certain technology and services.

Judges challenged arguments made by both sides in the faceoff in an appeals court in Washington.

Lawyers for the states and the companies tried to persuade the three-judge panel to restore the net neutrality regime, set in 2015 during the Obama administration and repealed in December 2017 at the direction of a regulator appointed by President Donald Trump. The companies challenging the FCC action include Mozilla, developer of the Firefox web browser, and Vimeo, a video-sharing site.

The net neutrality rules had banned cable, wireless and other broadband providers from blocking or slowing down websites and apps of their choosing, or charging Netflix and other video services extra to reach viewers faster.

The practice of slowing down transmission is known as “throttling.”