Democracy runs rampant on the internet because it’s equalized: everyone gets to the same network, no sites are given preferential treatment, all sites are available, and so on.  The telecommunications industry would like to change that.  They want full ownership of the internet so they can sell priority traffic to those who can afford it.  Anyone who can’t will be relegated to the slow lane or made entirely unavailable.  The premise is for big telecoms to take over the objective management currently provided by the government, a move that would enable them to segregate the net into the haves and have-nots.  Consumers will pay the price for this, of course, as sites with money purchase the good service while those without it suffer on slower segments and are ultimately rendered inaccessible.  From Keeping a Democratic Web by The New York Times:

“Net neutrality” is a concept that is still unfamiliar to most Americans, but it keeps the Internet democratic. Cable and telephone companies that provide Internet service are talking about creating a two-tiered Internet, in which Web sites that pay them large fees would get priority over everything else. Opponents of these plans are supporting Net-neutrality legislation, which would require all Web sites to be treated equally. Net neutrality recently suffered a setback in the House, but there is growing hope that the Senate will take up the cause.

One of the Internet’s great strengths is that a single blogger or a small political group can inexpensively create a Web page that is just as accessible to the world as Microsoft’s home page. But this democratic Internet would be in danger if the companies that deliver Internet service changed the rules so that Web sites that pay them money would be easily accessible, while little-guy sites would be harder to access, and slower to navigate. Providers could also block access to sites they do not like.