The World Is Watching Our Net Neutrality Debate, So Let’s Get It Right

[Commentary] When it comes to the debate on network neutrality, the world watches what we do at home.

That’s one reason that President Barack Obama's commitment to network neutrality is so important: In the struggle to protect a global, open, and free Internet, we must also protect it at home. The President’s recent call to enshrine network neutrality principles in domestic regulation echoes our diplomatic efforts to prevent any centralized power -- corporate or governmental -- from picking winners and losers on the Internet, as well as our efforts to promote freedom of expression and the free flow of information online.

The fight for network neutrality, like the fight for an open and free Internet, is a clarion call for the world’s Internet users and content creators to defend what has made the Internet one of the world’s greatest enablers of global social and economic progress. In both of these efforts, the United States will lead -- at home, by ensuring that service providers cannot pick winners and losers, and abroad, by ensuring that as more and more people get access to the Internet, they are able to take advantage of all of its benefits to innovate, collaborate, and communicate with the rest of the world.

[Ambassador Daniel Sepulveda is the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State]