FROM savetheinternet.com :
Verizon Blocks Pro-Choice Text Messaging
September 26th, 2007 by tkarrWe’ve just been handed another view of Verizon’s gatekeeper tendencies with a report Wednesday night that the company’s wireless arm is blocking pro-choice text messages.
According to the New York Times, Verizon Wireless has rejected Naral Pro-Choice America efforts to use Verizon’s mobile text-message program to communicate to its membership.
 What free speech looks like Take Action Now to Stop the Gatekeepers (Photo courtesy of gizmodo) |
Such text messaging is an important new tool for advocacy organizations seeking to educate and alert their members. Verizon decision to block this new form of political speech interferes with its users’ right to get information that they choose to receive.
The move gives off a familiar scent — and puts Verizon in the same league with its cohorts at AT&T, who in August censored the live Webcast of a Pearl Jam performance that included criticism of President George Bush.
The truth is that whenever given the choice, phone companies will opt to discriminate against content they don’t like. Such efforts to stem the free flow of information should be a wake up call for anyone concerned about phone company plans to begin filtering Internet content.
Verizon and AT&T routinely rail against Net Neutrality as a “solution in search of a problem.” They swarm Washington with lobbyists offering promises never to interfere with the free flow of online content. And then they lobby for new laws that will allow them to do just that.
AT&T and Verizon share a history of breaking trust with the public, including handing over customer phone records to the government — and then seeking immunity from prosecution for doing so; promising to deliver services to underserved communities and then skipping town; pledging never to interfere with the free flow of information while hatching plans with the likes of Cisco and Viacom to build and deploy technology that will spy on online traffic.
Earlier this month, Verizon filed suit against the FCC for trying to pry open the Wireless market to more consumer choice and competition. In Verizon’s myopic view, consumers should never benefit from the free market — and especially not those who are locked into their draconian wireless contracts.
The bottom line is never trust Verizon or AT&T at their word. Phone companies act in bad faith toward the public and will do whatever they can get away with — including sacrificing their users’ freedom to choose — to advance their financial interests.
The Verizon network crowd that famously shadows users wherever they go has now taken on an Orwellian cast. No, Verizon, we don’t want your mob to surround us. We simply want you to get out of our way.
