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US President Donald Trump on Monday signed a repeal of Obama-era broadband privacy rules, the White House said, a victory for internet service providers and a blow to privacy advocates.
Republicans in Congress last week narrowly passed the repeal of the privacy rules with no Democratic support and over the strong objections of privacy advocates.
The signing, disclosed in White House statement late on Monday, follows strong criticism of the bill, which is a win for AT&T Inc, Comcast Corp and Verizon Communications Inc.
The bill repeals regulations adopted in October by the Federal Communications Commission under the Obama administration requiring internet service providers to do more to protect customers' privacy than websites like Alphabet Inc's Google or Facebook Inc.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai praised the repeal in a statement late on Monday for having “appropriately invalidated one part of the Obama-era plan for regulating the internet." Those flawed privacy rules, which never went into effect, were designed to benefit one group of favored companies, not online consumers."
Pai said the FCC would work with the Federal Trade Commission, which oversees websites, to restore the "FTC’s authority to police internet service providers’ privacy practices."
The action is the latest in a string of reversals of Obama administration rules. On Monday, the FCC reversed a requirement that Charter Communications Inc extend broadband service to 1 million homes that already have a high-speed provider.
On Friday, Comcast, Verizon AT&T Inc said they would voluntarily not sell customers’ individual internet browsing information.
The American Civil Liberties Union said last month Congress should have opposed "industry pressure to put profits over privacy" and added "most Americans believe that their sensitive internet information should be closely guarded."
Trade group USTelecom Chief Executive Jonathan Spalter in a statement praised Trump for "stopping rules that would have created a confusing and conflicting consumer privacy framework."
Last week, 46 Senate Democrats urged Trump not to sign the bill, arguing most Americans "believe that their private information should be just that."
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