Egypt crisis makes case for network neutrality: ex-Obama tech chief

Former Google executive and White House deputy chief technology officer Andrew McLaughlin used the communications crackdown in Egypt to argue in favor of network neutrality regulations.

Authorities in Egypt have interrupted Internet access for virtually the entire nation in an unprecedented move, and democracies can glean a thing or two from this, McLaughlin wrote in The Guardian. The lesson: Network neutrality rules are "important to prevent networks from installing tools and capabilities that could be abused in moments of crisis," McLaughlin said, adding that dictatorships and authoritarian regimes will take "quite the opposite" lesson from the crisis.