Governor Cuomo has signed an executive order which says the state won’t do business with any internet company that doesn’t practice net neutrality. The governor’s executive order is designed to get around the Federal Communications Commission ruling earlier this month that overturned net neutrality.
That makes it legal to charge companies more to carry their content at high internet speeds, or to slow down or block off access to a competing provider. Cuomo sides with most of the Democratic Party in calling the FCC ruling dangerous. He says New York wants to make sure the net remains free and open to all.
New York State buys a lot of internet bandwidth for its various services, and the governor is hoping to use that as leverage over the internet companies.