NBC Universal has told America's communications regulator, the FCC, that the US government needs to do more to encourage the removal of pirated content from the internet.

The FCC is currently taking comments in relation to net neutrality over fears that ISPs and telecom providers could seek to block or downgrade the delivery to subscribers of certain applications and or content from competitors. NBC used its filing on the topic to address the issue of the piracy of intellectual property.

In its comments, NBCU claimed the government was "stand[ing] by mutely" while the internet was being "hijacked" by the illegal distribution of copyrighted content over peer-to-peer networks. NBCU claimed that peer-to-peer traffic accounted for between 60 and 70% of total internet traffic and further claimed that 90% of that traffic consisted of pirated content.

"Surely, the government would not turn a blind eye if nearly three-quarters of the Internet's traffic consisted of child pornography," the company's statement said.

NBCU said that the government should force internet service providers to implement measures preventing their subscribers from downloading pirated material, adding that current practice is "bad for legitimate businesses, bad for the networks that comprise the internet, and bad for law-abiding consumers."