[Commentary] We like to imagine American politics as a kind of scored debate, with political actors acting as the debaters, the media acting as the judge, and the public acting as the audience. Much of cable news is based, implicitly or explicitly, on this metaphor.
[Commentary] Our thoughts are still being documented more than ever. In a world where we’re increasingly communicating through our phones rather than in person, app developers are making it easier than ever to communicate exactly what we want to exactly who we want. The most successful apps, moreover, are the ones which most effectively reward the greatest quantity of communication: we’ve been trained by highly sophisticated Silicon Valley behaviorists to tweet or Snap or otherwise communicate almost every thing—really, everything—we think or feel or see.
State governments are becoming pivotal players in the battle over net neutrality. Gov Phil Murphy (D-NJ) this week became one of the latest to adopta new strategy, signing an executive order that effectively forces Internet service providers (ISPs) that do business with the state to abide by strong net neutrality rules. Rather than directly regulating the broadband industry, the executive order imposes procurement obligations on state agencies.
I am crafting a “net neutrality” bill that will put in place common-sense “rules of the road” that will ensure the Internet is an open, competitive place for people to do business. To those who provide the on-ramps to the Internet, my bill ensures that they will not: (1) block, (2) throttle, or (3) establish paid prioritization. It further requires Internet service providers to be transparent in their network management practices. In short, consumers are the ones who decide which websites or applications are best for them, not a third party.
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