Franken chides FCC fast-lane Internet proposal

Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., is condemning a proposal made by the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission on the future of the way in which the Internet functions in the hands of private businesses.

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The nation's top telecoms regulator is proposing to allow a pay-for-priority fast lane for movies, music and other services to get to people's homes. Under the proposal, an access provider could demand that high-traffic services such as Netflix pay for preferential treatment. The proposal would include safeguards to make sure the arrangements don't harm consumers or stifle competition and free speech.

Franken says startups such as YouTube and Netflix would never have been able to get off the ground if the proposed rules had been in place earlier.

"We've had all this tremendous innovation under this architecture of the open Internet, or neutrality, and this is a huge shift in that," he said.

The proposed rules come after a federal appeals court struck down previous "net neutrality" rules designed to prevent Internet access providers such as Comcast from discriminating against certain traffic flowing to their customers.

The proposal would include safeguards to make sure the arrangements don't harm consumers or stifle competition and free speech. But critics of the decision disagree.

"The commission is using a bad legal path to a terrible policy end," said Sarah J. Morris, senior policy counsel at New America, a non-partisan think tank.

The FCC will likely vote on the proposed rules before the end of the year. Franken says he hopes at least three commissioners will vote against the plan in order to defeat it.

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.