President Obama had barely arrived on Chinese soil when he got up in front of a town hall style student audience in Shanghai and said China needed unrestricted access to an open Internet. Although he delivered the message with his trademark personal charm, it was still a bold move. He was stepping on the toes of Chinese government policy, even if most of China’s 250 million Internet users might silently agree with him. The Shanghai encounter also offers some perspective for the ongoing Net Neutrality discussion in the U.S.

We live in a country where the people and the government are one in their support of an open Internet. We’ve never had anything else, which reflects our much cherished and constitutionally guaranteed right of free speech. Two centuries of the “American experiment” have reinforced our belief that the guarantee of free speech is only legitimate if it applies to all forms of speech, even to speech that’s unpopular with the majority of us. And the FCC’s prescient policy of applying minimal regulation to the Internet has not only preserved free speech, it has encouraged the private investment that’s been the foundation for the Internet’s dynamic growth.

That investment goes hand in hand with free speech and Internet innovation. The FCC’s original four Network Neutrality principles plus existing laws and regulations have proved effective in guaranteeing an open Internet where broadband network operators cannot discriminate against content providers. They have allowed free speech and Internet technology to flourish. Unnecessarily expanding the FCC principles into restrictive new regulations would not be in the interest of Internet freedom. It would be an ironic and unintended step toward the kind of government interference which is the norm in China, but never has been and never should be in America.

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