Senator Al Franken (D-MN) is one of the main voices of net neutrality, having equated it to the free speech issue of our time. The Democratic Senator believes that “net neutrality is the principle that the Internet belongs to the people, not huge corporations“. He’s not a fan of Comcast either, but today he is a fan of President Obama’s push to get the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to make stronger net neutrality rules.
Franken issued a statement Monday, “I welcome today’s news that President Obama is pressing the FCC to maintain a free and open Internet. He joins a chorus of more than 3.5 million Americans who have told the FCC that killing net neutrality is a terrible idea, and who strongly believe a very simple principle: there shouldn’t be one Internet for deep-pocketed corporations and a separate Internet for everyone else.
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“What the President is asking the FCC to do—to reclassify Internet service as a utility—is simply common sense, and it would ensure that rich corporations couldn’t pay for an Internet fast lane. That’s why over the summer, I and several of my colleagues urged the FCC to do just that.
“Net neutrality is a simple concept: all content on the Internet must travel at the same speed. It’s been the architecture of the Internet since it was created. It’s made the Internet a platform for enormous innovation and economic growth. And it should stay that way. I hope the FCC agrees.”
In May of this year after the Federal Communications Commission passed newly proposed net neutrality rules that would allow broadband providers to charge companies for faster delivery of their content, Franken warned that it could lead to fast lanes on the Internet and hand the Internet to corporations.
In June, Franken responded by introducing the Online Competition and Consumer Choice Act, which would ban the use of paid “fast lanes” on the Internet.
Net neutrality means that all legal content on the Internet is treated equally. President Obama was one of the earliest supporters of net neutrality.
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