Tech companies pushed for net neutrality. Now Sen. Al Franken wants to turn it on them.

For years, tech companies have insisted that they’re different from everything else. Take Facebook, which has long claimed that it’s a simple tech platform, not a media entity. "Don’t be evil," Google once said to its employees, as though it were setting itself apart from the world’s other massive corporations.

But now, some policymakers are increasingly insisting that firms such as Google, Facebook and Twitter really aren’t that special after all — and that perhaps it’s time they were held to the same standard that many Americans expect of electricity companies or Internet providers.

Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) became the latest and most vocal of these critics Wednesday when, at a Washington conference, he called for tech companies to follow the same net neutrality principles that the federal government has applied to broadband companies such as Verizon, AT&T and Comcast.

By Brian Fung

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2017/11/09/tech-companies-pushed-for-net-neutrality-now-al-franken-wants-to-turn-it-on-them/?hpid=hp_hp-cards_hp-card-technology%3Ahomepage%2Fcard&utm_term=.38635c3c09e9