US Supreme Court ends fight over net neutrality rules

05 November 2018 - 18:30
By Staff reporter and Reuters
Net neutrality means that all users are treated equally.
Image: tanaonte/123RF Net neutrality means that all users are treated equally.

The United States Supreme Court has put a halt to renewed efforts to lift internet neutrality, by declining to take up the matter on Monday.

It meant a formal end to the legal fight over a 2016 lower court ruling, upholding Obama-era net neutrality regulations aimed at ensuring a free and open internet - rules that have since been repealed by US president Donald Trump's government.

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What Is? Net Neutrality
9 years ago

According to Wikipedia, net neutrality is the principle that internet service providers treat all data on the internet equally, and not discriminate or charge differently by user, content, website, platform, application, type of attached equipment, or method of communication.

The Trump government and internet service providers had asked justices to wipe away the ruling by the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit that had temporarily preserved the net neutrality regulations championed by former president Barack Obama.

But the justices refused to hear the appeals, leaving the lower court ruling in place.