New York governor signs executive order requiring ISPs with state contracts to abide by net neutrality rules; Montana signed similar order Monday
Colin Lecher / The Verge :
Context & Ripple Effects
After the FCC's repeal, states moved to test the order's ban on state-level net neutrality rules — New York was already flagged as one of the states planning its own push. Montana's governor fired the first shot with an executive order barring data discrimination, the first such move by any governor since the repeal.
New York's order makes it the second state to use a different lever: not legislation, but the state's own purchasing power — ISPs that want state contracts must abide by neutrality rules. The template spread quickly, with New Jersey following within two weeks and Oregon later converting the approach into statute.
First-order effects
- ISPs serving New York and Montana state agencies must now comply with net neutrality rules on those connections or forfeit state business — compliance becomes a condition of contract, not a regulatory mandate.
Second-order effects
- The executive-order template is proving contagious: New Jersey adopted it days later and Oregon escalated to binding legislation, forcing national ISPs to weigh neutrality terms market-by-market rather than fight one federal rule.
- Oregon's bill drew expected ISP litigation threats, signaling carriers will likely challenge the state-contracting workaround in court rather than accept a state-by-state patchwork.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, state procurement becomes a durable substitute for federal net neutrality — regulation enforced through contracts that sidestep the FCC's preemption of state rules, and a precedent for states regulating tech through their buying power more broadly.
The trend: States are converting procurement power into tech regulation, using state contracts to reimpose net neutrality where federal rulemaking has retreated.