Susan > these are different examples of a larger trend. Blocking a service and blocking access to a site are both examples of network providers going up the protocol stack in discriminatory ways.

OK, If you want to frame it in terms of protocol stack levels, fine (though I think that blocking an IP address is actually a Network layer change which is below Transport, but I take you point that, in this case, its impact is higher /geek-ing). Though I think my question still stands: are you suggesting that any discriminatory acts above the transport layer should be regulated equally. Or are acts that discriminate against particular sites / people etc, different from those that discriminate against services? In the examples you give, is stopping people from seeing a union site just the same, in regulatory / legal terms, as stopping people talking ‘freely’ on Skype?