President Barack Obama's fellow Democrats in the Senate on Thursday blocked a Republican-backed resolution to disapprove of the Federal Communications Commission's new rules on net neutrality.

On a vote of 52-46, the Democratic-led Senate rejected a motion to proceed to the resolution, which Obama had threatened to veto.

The so-called net neutrality rules, adopted by a divided FCC last December, forbid broadband providers from blocking legal content while leaving flexibility for providers to manage their networks. They go into effect November 20.

(Reporting by Jasmin Melvin and Tom Ferraro, editing by Maureen Bavdek)