The polite and reserved people of New Jersey have collectively stuck two fingers up at the Republican-controlled FCC for trying to kill off net neutrality so that the telephone monopolies can build a two-tier internet.

The move to enact a local net neutrality law makes New Jersey the latest state to implement its own net neutrality rules following the Federal Communications Commission's repeal of the Obama-era consumer protections.

Gov. Phil Murphy (D) signed an executive order prohibiting all internet service providers that do business with the state from blocking, throttling or favouring web content.

"We may not agree with everything we see online, but that does not give us a justifiable reason to block the free, uninterrupted, and indiscriminate flow of information", Murphy said in a statement.

"And, it certainly doesn't give certain companies or individuals a right to pay their way to the front of the line. While New Jersey cannot unilaterally regulate net neutrality back into law or cement it as state regulation, we can exercise our power as a consumer to make our preferences known", he added.

Gurbir Grewal, New Jersey's attorney general, also announced that the state would be the 22nd to join a lawsuit against the FCC for throwing citizens to the wolves by giving in to the big telcos.

All this is terrible news for the telcos. While they have been spending a fortune trying to kill off net neutrality, they have suddenly realised that they will have to conform with lots of different laws in different states which is even worse. Their latest line of attack is to try and force the central government to build another nationally enforceable net neutrality law which is telco friendly.