network neutrality

(noun)

A principle proposed for user-access networks participating in the Internet that advocates no restrictions by ISPs or government on the content, sites, platforms, equipment, and modes of communication over the network.

Related Terms

Examples of network neutrality in the following topics:

  • Government Regulations

    • Network Neutrality in the United States is a hotly debated issue subject to regulatory and judicial contention among network users and access providers.
    • As a de facto matter, there is a degree of network neutrality in the United States, meaning that telecommunications companies rarely offer different rates to broadband and dial-up Internet consumers based on Internet-based content or service type.
    • In recent years, advocates of network neutrality have sought to restrict such changes.

  • Nationalization of the News

    • While local news is still available, it is becoming increasingly nationalized and local outlets are being purchased larger, national networks.
    • Nationalization of the news refers to the modern phenomenon of the decline of local news networks and the increase in power of national news networks.
    • The larger networks like ABC News , NBC News, and CBS News are able to afford these technologies and are beginning to buy out the smaller, local networks.
    • ABC News is an example of a large networks "buying out" smaller ones.

  • Fiscal Policy and Policy Making

    • Neutral fiscal policy, usually undertaken when an economy is in equilibrium.
    • Government spending is fully funded by tax revenue and overall the budget outcome has a neutral effect on the level of economic activity.
    • Thus, for example, a government budget that is balanced over the course of the business cycle is considered to represent a neutral fiscal policy stance.

  • Television News

    • In most parts of the world, national television networks will have network bulletins featuring national and international news.
    • Local news may be presented by stand-alone local TV stations, local stations affiliated with national networks, or by local studios which "opt-out" of national network programming at specified times.
    • In the early twenty-first century news programs, especially those of commercial networks, tended to become less oriented toward hard news, and often regularly included "feel-good stories" or humorous reports as the last items on their newscasts, as opposed to news programs transmitted thirty years earlier, such as the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite.

  • Blogs, Podcasts, and Cyberspace

    • Cyberspace is the electronic medium of computer networks in which online communication takes place .
    • Now ubiquitous, in current usage the term "cyberspace" stands for the global network of interdependent information technology infrastructures, telecommunications networks, and computer processing systems.
    • The United States government recognizes the interconnected information technology and the interdependent network of information technology infrastructures operating across this medium as part of the US National Critical Infrastructure.
    • Cyberspace describes the flow of digital data through the network of interconnected computers.
    • In that sense, blogging can be seen as a form of social networking.

  • Facilitating Private-Voluntary Associations

    • Government not only makes enforceable agreements possible but it provides neutral judges to resolve disputes about such agreements.

  • Interventionism

    • However, even though he was intent on neutrality as the official policy of the United States, he still echoed the dangers of staying out of this war.
    • The first came in 1939 with the passage of the Fourth Neutrality Act, which permitted the United States to trade arms with belligerent nations, as long as these nations came to America to retrieve the arms, and pay for them in cash.
    • The Lend Lease Act allowed the United States to tip-toe from isolationism while still remaining militarily neutral.

  • Fiscal Policy

    • Neutral fiscal policy is usually undertaken when an economy is in equilibrium.
    • Government spending is fully funded by tax revenue and overall the budget outcome has a neutral effect on the level of economic activity.
    • Thus, for example, a government budget that is balanced over the course of the business cycle is considered to represent a neutral fiscal policy stance.

  • World War II

    • Between 1936 and 1937, much to the dismay of the pro-British President Roosevelt, Congress passed the Neutrality Acts.
    • In the final Neutrality Act, Americans could not sail on ships flying the flag of a belligerent nation or trade arms with warring nations, potential causes for U.S. entry into war.
    • The first came in 1939 with the passage of the Fourth Neutrality Act, which permitted the United States to trade arms with belligerent nations, as long as these nations came to America to retrieve the arms and paid for them in cash.

  • Organization of Interest Groups

    • Neo-Pluralism: This is based on the concept of political communities in that pressure groups and other similar bodies are organised around a government department and its network of client groups.
    • The members of this network co-operate during the policy making process.