Microsoft wants to block an effort for a shareholder vote forcing the world’s largest software maker to explain its support for Internet network neutrality, according to a company letter obtained by Reuters on Tuesday.
The Free Enterprise Action Fund, a mutual fund that says it offers both financial and ideological returns, wants Microsoft shareholders to seek a report on the company’s rationale for backing Net neutrality, which the group says would result in “expanded government regulation of the Internet.”
The debate centers on whether high-speed Internet service providers like AT&T and Comcast should be barred from charging companies like Microsoft or Google to carry their content or guarantee service quality.
Microsoft and Google fear broadband providers would block access to their content and have sought legislation barring those extra charges. AT&T and other broadband providers have denied they would block access to the public Internet.
