This is from the IMIS Journal April 2000. The Internet is probably the largest single thing mankind has ever built. We must come to terms with its great size, its multinational, multicultural diversity, and how it impacts on the way we live now and in the future.
Many people argue that the Internet, like all technology, is neutral.
This view is wrong. The Internet neutrality argument is analogous to how the pro-gun lobby in the US argues that guns do not kill people, but people do, and that therefore there is nothing bad about guns themselves. Yes, people are responsible for what happens to each other, but guns make some possible courses of action more likely, and more extreme as evidenced by the recent horrific events at an American school. It is true that children do things with guns but we would not like to hold them responsible. Thus the availability of guns to children is an ethical issue, closely related to the design, manufacture and distribution of guns.