FCC neutrality rules

Image by luc legay via Flickr

Twenty-four top executives at e-commerce, social-networking and other Web companies have asked the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to move forward with its plan to create formal net neutrality rules, despite opposition voiced by several U.S. lawmakers, minority groups and telecom-related companies.

The letter today to the FCC, signed by the CEOs of Amazon.com, Google, eBay, Facebook and Twitter, said net neutrality rules will ensure a "competitive and efficient" Internet marketplace.

Net neutrality rules prohibiting broadband providers from selectively blocking or slowing Web content and applications will allow an Internet "where consumers make the ultimate choices about which products succeed and which fail," the letter said. "This allows businesses of all sizes, from the smallest startup to larger corporations, to compete, yielding maximum economic growth and opportunity."