Bloomberg

Google has been quietly urging the US government to narrow legal protection for workers organizing online. During the Obama administration, the National Labor Relations Board broadened employees’ rights to use their workplace email system to organize around issues on the job. In a 2014 case, Purple Communications, the agency restricted companies from punishing employees for using their workplace email systems for activities like circulating petitions or fomenting walkouts, as well as trying to form a union.

The network neutrality fight will continue playing out in federal court and the states in 2019, against the backdrop of a divided Congress that’s unlikely to settle the debate. The DC Circuit is likely to rule in Mozilla Corp. v. Federal Communications Commission in late spring or summer. The court may decide the fate of the repeal of Obama-era rules, and whether states can enact net neutrality laws in defiance of the FCC. Four states have enacted laws reinstating net neutrality protections since the FCC’s repeal. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai says the state laws are illegal.