On August 31, 2018, the state senate of California passed bill SB822, the country’s most comprehensive net neutrality legislation by a vote of 27-12. The day before, the state assembly had passed the bill by a vote of 61-18.  The bill now awaits the approval of Governor Jerry Brown, who has till end of September, before the bill is formally legislated. The bill survived reported last ditch attempts to stall it by Internet Service Providers (ISP) like Verizon and AT&T. California is now set to join Oregon, Vermont and Washington in the list of states with net neutrality legislations.  Governors in the states of New York, Montana, Vermont, New Jersey, Rhode Island  and Hawaii  have already passed executive orders for net neutrality.

In 2015, during Obama’s administration, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) introduced strict net neutrality rules, prohibiting ISPs from blocking and throttling internet traffic. The rules also classified ISPs as Title II carriers, bringing them within the regulatory powers of the FCC. In 2017, the FCC under the chairmanship of Republican Ajit Pai repealed its earlier net neutrality policies, giving ISPs a complete carte blanche to regulate their internet traffic, and also removing the Title II classification that brought  ISPs  under the regulation of the FCC.