US senator calls on Internet companies to apply net neutrality

US senator Al Franken has recently called on Internet companies like Google, Facebook, and Twitter to follow net neutrality principles that are currently applies in the US to broadband companies. Speaking at an event in Washington DC, Franken said that ‘We must now begin a thorough examination of big tech’s practices in order to secure the free flow of information on the internet’. Later, in an open ed in the Guardian, titled ‘We must not let big tech threaten our security, freedoms and democracy’, the senator said that, as ‘tech giants become a new kind of Internet gatekeeper’, net neutrality rules should apply to them as well. Franken explained that Internet companies should not have ‘the power to pick and choose which content reaches consumers and which doesn’t’, and, instead, ‘ should be “neutral” in their treatment of the flow of lawful information and commerce on their platforms’.