Cloud? Mall? Why internet metaphors matter in net neutrality debate

Absent intervention by Congress or the courts, the Federal Communication Commission’s net neutrality regulations, which prevent internet service providers like Verizon and Comcast from establishing tiered pricing and levels of access to the internet, will expire on June 11. But the rules, which are supported by big majorities of Americans in both parties, aren’t going down without a fight. Framing arguments on both sides of the debate are different metaphors about what the internet really is. Is the internet a grocery store, for instance, or more like a utility? “Metaphors play a fundamental role in our basic understanding and in the way we reason about various important topics in our lives,” says University of Oregon philosopher Mark Johnson. And “the metaphors that operate most powerfully,” says Annette Markham, a professor of information studies at Aarhus University, “are those that operate without our awareness.”