In the digital age, Americans are more “connected” than ever before. The Internet and mobile devices serve as powerful platforms for real-time interaction. Thanks to the commercial potential of these technologies, the marketplace has been flooded with creative new businesses and tools. The rapid growth of these technologies, however, has outpaced the ability of lawmakers to regulate them. As a result, a movement is taking shape to give the government blanket authority over how Americans connect, interact, and innovate This regulatory movement marches under the banner of “network neutrality.”.
Any company or industry that connects users together operates a network. With the growing popularity of mobile and Internet technologies, nearly all modern commerce requires the use of networks. As Wireless with Strings Attached explains, the term “neutrality” encompasses such a vague, broadly defined set of rules and restrictions that it can be used to justify nearly any possible regulation of any imaginable network. Therefore, “net neutrality” is nothing more than old-fashioned government regulation, originally designed for a single monopoly telecommunications carrier, but now dressed up for the digital age.
