Congressional Republicans apparently throw in the towel on net neutrality

Internet activism, take a bow. On Thursday, the Federal Communications Commission is expected to approve a measure to reclassify broadband internet as a more heavily regulated public utility, as a means to enforce network neutrality, the proposition that internet service providers have to treat all internet traffic equally. Republicans in Congress had wanted to push through legislation blocking that move, but they've given up, The New York Times reports.

"We're not going to get a signed bill that doesn't have Democrats' support," Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) tells The Times. "This is an issue that needs to have bipartisan support." The fight over net neutrality pitted Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Verizon, and other big broadband providers against a vast array of internet companies. Thune blames a big grassroots push from internet users for sapping his proposed legislation of momentum.

"We've been outspent, outlobbied. We were going up against the second-biggest corporate lobby in D.C., and it looks like we've won," the Mozilla Foundation's Dave Steer tells The Times. "A year ago today, we did not think we would be in this spot." The fight isn't over by any stretch, but now it shifts from the legislature to the courts — again.

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