Sen Franken Stumps For Network Neutrality

Sen Al Franken (D-MN) told a Future of Music Coalition policy summit audience in Washington that he will work with the Federal Communications Commission and President Barack Obama to make network neutrality regulations a reality, saying it is a 21st Century reiteration of the First Amendment. He said the "freedom and openness" that have been the Internet's hallmarks are under fire thanks to Internet service providers who use "network management" as code for "finding ways to squeeze more cash out of their networks." Borrowing discrimination phrase-turning from the Civil Rights movement, Sen Franken said he was concerned that a system where big companies paid for prioritized traffic would divide the Web into a system of "separate but unequal networks." Sen Franken said there were two main issues -- censorship and innovation. He called out Comcast, AT&T, and Verizon for engaging in censorship, likening them to Internet filterers in Iran. As to innovation, he said that the problem wasn't just with what could be taken away, but what would never be created in the first place.