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ACLU Urges Cities To Build Public Broadband To Protect Net Neutrality (thehill.com)
The ACLU is calling on cities across the country to build their own public municipal broadband networks to help preserve net neutrality after the Federal Communications Commission repealed the open internet rules. From a report: In a report released Thursday morning, the civil liberties group argued that in the absence of the FCC's rules cities could give residents an alternative to private service providers who will soon no longer be required to treat all web traffic equally. "Internet service has become as essential as utilities like water and electricity, and local governments should treat it that way," Jay Stanley, an ACLU policy analyst who authored the report, said in a statement. "If local leaders want to protect their constituents' rights and expand quality internet access, then community broadband is an excellent way to do that," Stanley added. The ACLU sent the report to more than 100 mayors across the country who had spoken out against the FCC's decision to scrap the rules.
Now who will pay for it?
If it's the municipal government that owns the tubes, all the pseudo-legal arguments about how private companies are free to censor guns and right-wing politics all they like go out the door. Not that they had much of a foothold to start with, but...you know, jus' saying.