Lessons from the Net Neutrality Lobby: Balancing Openness and Control in a Networked Society

Abstract

This paper provides a historical review for debates about net neutrality, and proposes a theoretical framework for analysis based on concepts of communication power. Between 2005 and 2007, a battle of words transformed into a citizen and consumer movement, which focused on efforts to legislate for, or against, “Net Neutrality” in the US Congress. The issue, previously a policy goal discussed primarily by legal academics policy scholars and economists became a policy goal of a coalition of media reform advocates including Google, the National Rifle Association, and the American Civil Liberties Association. The paper develops a theoretical perspective on this negotiation, arguing that politicized discourses about Net Neutrality conflate various types of political, economic, and consumer issues, and proposing an analysis based on “network power” (Castells, 2009) that can connect these various interpretations.

Keywords: net neutrality, power, discourse, policy