Senator pushes net neutrality for tech companies

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 would say to its employees, as if it were setting itself apart from the world's other massive corporations.

But now, some policymakers increasingly are insisting that businesses 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, D.C., 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.

'We must now begin a thorough examination of big tech's practices in order to secure the free flow of information on the internet,” Franken said, at an event hosted by the Open Markets Institute.

Franken then pressed harder, following up with an op-ed in the Guardian newspaper.

'Facebook, Google and Amazon, like ISPs, should be neutral in their treatment of the flow of lawful information and commerce on their platforms,” Franken wrote.

The double-barreled critique of major tech companies as non-neutral entities cuts against Silicon Valley's longtime message to the country and reflects the growing skepticism in Washington toward the industry.

Tech companies such as Twitter have advocated forcefully for strong net neutrality rules, arguing that without them, internet providers could manipulate what internet users can see and do on the Web.