My Lords, this is an amendment to Part 1 of Schedule 2 which seeks to add three sub-paragraphs. They concern net neutrality and seek to clarify the issue. As the Minister will know,
they are made necessary, in some ways, because of the flurry of confusion that was caused by unfortunate wording in a measure debated recently in the European Parliament. It would be absurd, would it not, if in the name of net neutrality—or anything else, for that matter—ISPs or we found that we were unable to take reasonable steps to protect children from age-inappropriate materials on the internet.
No right-thinking person can ever have intended that, so I hope that the Government will take this opportunity to put the matter beyond any doubt. Noble Lords will know that net neutrality is the principle that internet service providers and Governments should treat all data on the internet equally. They should not discriminate or charge by user, content, site, platform or application. In layman’s terms that means that whether we are looking at iPlayer, Sky Go or Netflix, there will be equal access to services and there should be no speed differentiation in accessing them. The amendment seeks to address that issue.
I know that noble Lords have comments to make so I will limit myself to putting some questions to the Minister. What consideration has she made of any possible changes to the principle of net neutrality? Will she rule out any changes to data priority for UK consumers of online content? Has she had meetings with ministerial colleagues to discuss what response the Government might make if the authorities in America, for example, make changes to their rules on net neutrality? Does she feel that existing protocols are strong enough to protect the interests of consumers and avoid competition issues among content providers? What assessment has she made of any competition implications of the possible creation of a two-tier internet? I do not expect the Minister to answer those questions in detail right now but it might be necessary for the discussion to take place between now and the next stage of the Bill. I beg to move.
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