Barry Diller, owner of a host of internet firms including Ask.com, Vimeo and The Daily Beast, has called for the concept of net neutrality to be enshrined in American law amidst ongoing moves to water down the principle for wireless communications.

The comments were made at South By Southwest, a media and technology conference in the US where Diller said: “We need an unambiguous rule - a law - that nobody will step between the publisher and the consumer, full stop.”

Diller believes that the internet should be treated like a utility, such as electricity, with providers prevented from charging different amounts for different types of traffic - net neutrality.

Such measures would, Diller believes, prevent a small number of companies from holding users to “ransom”.

Ed Vaizey, the British communications minister, has pledged to “intervene” in the UK should the internet develop in ways which were “detrimental” to consumer interests.