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If ISPs are to be found liable for their actions,

Jan. 11, 2019 by Katherine Berry

If ISPs are to be found liable for their actions, it would mark an alarming escalation in the telecom industry's fight against privacy. In the past, the USTelecom letter to the FCC highlighted the company's desire to keep its data safe, but it does not mention the fact that it has become increasingly hard to obtain.

Despite the fact that the majority of USTelecom's requests for court orders have come from the USTelecom-owned subsidiaries of AT&T, Verizon, and others, USTelecom still plans to fight the FCC's recent order to require ISPs to make sure their users have access to their internet providers' servers in order to be able to make calls and receive emails. The FCC's order also makes it easier for ISPs to block traffic from third-party services like Netflix, Hulu, and YouTube, but it also requires ISPs to block access to websites that are not in compliance with current regulations.

This is the second major court case that the USTelecom campaign has brought to the FCC. On March 6, 2016, the group filed a lawsuit against Comcast (Comcast America, now Comcast), Comcast in federal court in Washington, D.C., alleging that the company's "unreasonable and deceptive practices and practices" have been "systematically and unlawfully imposed upon" the broadband industry.

In a ruling of a lower court last May, the federal court ordered Comcast to pay $9.6 million to settle a lawsuit brought by more than 30 individuals and three companies claiming that the company improperly "punishes" its customers for not being more open and open to the Internet. In the case, Comcast challenged a court order to require the ISP to "proactively block certain websites and services that are not in compliance with current and applicable Federal law." The company argued that the FCC's new rules were discriminatory and unconstitutional, and that Comcast "has demonstrated that it has not complied with its obligations under the First Amendment and the Due Process Clause of the First Amendment."

While the FCC has not made any official statement about whether or not it will issue a new net neutrality order, the FCC's first order on the matter came in July, 2016, when it issued a final rule that "does not further any discriminatory practices." And that order remains in force.

And, for the time being, the FCC's order does not apply to websites.