This issue is a little confusing. Net neutrality means different things to different people it seems...

Big government the real threat to Internet

In his recent CNN.com opinion piece, "Net neutrality is foremost free speech issue of our time," Sen. Al Franken claims that "our free speech rights are under assault -- not from the government but from corporations seeking to control the flow of information in America."

He alludes to potential corporate blocking of online products and speech and says, "If that scares you as much as it scares me, then you need to care about net neutrality."

Chicken Little, call your office!

Such sky-is-falling scare tactics are all too common in the heated debate over net neutrality regulation, but actual evidence of such nefarious corporate scheming is nowhere to be found. Perhaps that's why Franken resorts to such tall tales.

Moreover, his reading of the First Amendment is at odds with the one most of us learned about in civics class ("Congress shall make no law..."). His would empower regulators by converting the First Amendment from a shield against government action into a sword that bureaucrats could wield against private industry.

We should be skeptical of any claims that net neutrality regulation is consistent with the First Amendment, let alone required by it. As First Amendment attorney Robert Corn-Revere has noted ("The First Amendment, the Internet & Net Neutrality: Be Careful What You Wish For"), "It should not be forgotten that the federal government's initial impulse [in the mid-1990s] was to censor the internet and to subject it to a far lower level of First Amendment protection."

The real "Big Brother" threat here is a government with the power to completely foreclose all speech under threat of fine or imprisonment -- a power the private sector lacks even if you buy into the silly notion that it is out to bottle up speech or speakers.

Link:
http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/08/06/thierer.net.neutrality/index.html?hpt=Mid