Al Franken Quotes

I want to preserve the free and open Internet - the experience that most users and entrepreneurs have come to expect and enjoy today and that has unleashed impressive innovation, job creation, and investment.

Net neutrality is the right thing for our democracy, economy, and global competitiveness. And Americans support an open Internet.

The question is not whether we want to keep this open, neutral Internet - we do, or should - but whether government rulemaking can give us the result we want.

A free and open Internet should not have to be weighed down by legal challenges - its dynamism is essential to our economy.

Net neutrality has been in place since the very beginning of the Internet.

The Internet in the 21st Century is as important to our future as highways were in the 20th Century. Like a highway, the Internet must remain free and open for all - not determined by the highest bidders.

Without net neutrality protections, the Internet would no longer be a free and open ecosystem for innovation.

I'm for Internet openness. We're all for Internet openness. If you asked the American people, I think they support it. Internet companies, broadband companies are all in favor of it.

I support a free and open Internet.

The most important thing to remember here is that the Internet is not broken, and all of the innovation that we've seen since inception has been based on it being free and open.

Net neutrality rules ensure an equal playing field on the web for everyone, from the start-up to the tech giant.

Beginning in the Clinton administration, there was, for nearly two decades, a broad bipartisan consensus that the best Internet policy was light-touch regulation - rules that promoted competition and kept the Internet 'unfettered by federal or state regulation.' Under this policy, a free and open Internet flourished.

Any outcome, any deal that doesn't preserve the freedom and openness of the Internet for consumers and entrepreneurs will be unacceptable.

We need to make Net Neutrality the law. We need to elect a Congress that will make it a priority to keep this important principal intact - and insure equal and open access to the Internet for all.

Let's keep the Internet weird. Let's keep the Internet free.

Net Neutrality - a guiding principle of the Internet since its beginning - means that content is all treated equally.

Google's entire business model and its planning for the future are banking on an open and free Internet. And it will not succeed if the Internet becomes overly balkanized.

Reclassification is the best way to for us to preserve the Internet as an unfettered tool for communication and the sharing of ideas.

As a source of innovation, an engine of our economy, and a forum for our political discourse, the Internet can only work if it's a truly level playing field. Small businesses should have the same ability to reach customers as powerful corporations. A blogger should have the same ability to find an audience as a media conglomerate.

With Net Neutrality, the level playing field that gave us Google, YouTube and eBay when they were start-ups would suddenly start to tilt in favor of the big, established players.

Google is more than a business. Google is a belief system. And we believe passionately in the open Internet model.

From day one, the Internet was a public square, and the providers merely connected everyone, rather than regulating who spoke with whom. That allowed the Internet to evolve into a form of basic infrastructure, used by over a billion people today.

The FCC sided with the public and adopted extremely strong net neutrality rules that should be a global model for Internet freedom.

Net neutrality sounds wonky and technical but is actually quite simple. It would keep the Internet as it has always been - cable and phone companies would remain mere gateways to all sites, rather than gatekeepers determining where users can go and what innovators can offer them.

You do not need the government to protect open internet; the marketplace was doing it and will continue to do it. All you are doing is adding a burden that does not need to be there.