Net neutrality

Net neutrality (also network neutrality, Internet neutrality, or net equality) is the principle that Internet service providers and governments should treat all data on the Internet equally. There should be no discriminating or charging differently by user, content, site, platform, application, type of attached equipment, or mode of communication. The term was coined by Columbia University media law professor Tim Wu in 2003.^[1] It was an extension of the longstanding concept of a common carrier.

Examples of net neutrality violations include when the Internet service provider Comcast intentionally slowed peer-to-peer communications.^[2] In 2007, one other company was using deep packet inspection to discriminate against peer-to-peer, file transfer protocol, and online games.^[3] They started using a cell-phone-style billing system.