Franken: Without ‘Net Neutrality’, a ‘handful’ of corporations will control the Web

By Stephen C. Webster
Rawstory
Thursday, August 19th, 2010 -- 6:58 pm

Since his election in the nail-bitingly close campaign against former Republican Senator Norm Coleman, former Saturday Night Live comedian Al Franken has emerged as one of the strongest voices in favor of so-called "Net Neutrality" policies being considered by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

Franken has called "Net Neutrality" the most pressing free speech issue in modern day America, and supports policies which would require Internet service providers to treat all legal traffic equally.

Speaking Thursday evening before an FCC public hearing on "Net Neutrality," Franken insisted that the U.S. government cannot allow companies to write the rules by which they'll later be forced to play by.
"We don't just have a constitution problem here, we have a First Amendment problem, okay?" he said.

Search giant Google and telecom titan Verizon have both issues a series of "compromise" policy suggestions that would allow companies to create multi-tiered services over wireless networks offering specialty, premium service packages in what critics have called a plan to "cable-ize the Internet."

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