(CNN) — Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, hit back at Sen. Al Franken, D-Minnesota, Monday for his comments that Cruz doesn’t know what he is talking about when it comes to net neutrality.
Cruz used a video that he uploaded to YouTube and social media that shows the senator explaining what net neutrality is and how it works.
“What happens when government starts regulating a service as a public utility? It calcifies everything. It freezes it in place,” Cruz says, in a clip from a speech he delivered Friday in Texas.
“Let’s give a simple contrast. The Telecommunications Act of 1934 was adopted to regulate these,” Cruz says holding up a landline phone. “To put regulations in place and what happened? It froze everything in place. This (Cruz puts his hand on the landline phone) is regulated by Title II. This (Cruz holds up a cell phone) is not.”
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“Your smartphone, the Internet, the apps — all of this is outside of Title II,” Cruz continues. “The innovation is happening without having to go to government regulators and say, ‘Mother, may I?’ We want a whole lot more of this (Cruz holds up a cell phone) and a whole lot less of this (Cruz points at the landline phone).”
The Cruz explainer video is titled “How net neutrality hurts the internet explained.” It was circulated in response to Franken’s suggestion on Sunday that Cruz doesn’t know what he’s talking about when it comes to net neutrality.