State Legislatures Still Care about Broadband Privacy
When the Republican congress repealed the Federal Communications Commission鈥檚 (FCC) broadband privacy rule in 2017, states acted forcefully: nearly half of all states broadband privacy bills. Unfortunately, with the help of ISP lobbyists making deceitful and misleading arguments, none were successful.
Maine and Montana, however, are now leading the charge. Representative Zolnikov, a Republican Montana legislator, recently proposed , which passed out of the (Republican-majority) House. It now moves onto the Senate. In Maine, Democrat Senator Bellows introduced , a bill that lost by merely one vote in the prior session. Both bills took similar approaches to the OTI .
OTI, as a strong proponent of broadband privacy, submitted two letters supporting both bills, and urged the states to pass the bills.