"Others are challenging the idea that Internet providers are even capable of speech. As pipes that carry consumers' Web traffic to and fro, Internet providers are just a "conduit" for people's speech, according to a group of academics including Harvard's Lawrence Lessig and Yochai Benkler, and Stanford's Barbara van Schewick.
"It follows that when the Open Internet Rules require providers to carry others’ speech, they do not require the providers themselves to speak," they argue in their own brief.
What they're saying is that Internet providers don't really "speak" when they send your data whizzing across the Web — so there's no way the net neutrality rules really force them to say things they don't want to say. For the purposes of their core business, in other words, Internet providers are mute."
- Date Published:09/28/2015
- Original Publication:The Washington Post