Verizon rejects text messages from an abortion rights group

[Kadie]

Verizon rejects text messages from an abortion rights group

By Adam Liptak Published: September 26, 2007


Saying it had the right to block "controversial or unsavory" text messages, Verizon Wireless has rejected a request from Naral Pro-Choice America, the abortion rights group, to make Verizon's mobile network available for a text-message program.

The other leading wireless carriers have accepted the program, which allows people to sign up for text messages from Naral by sending a message to a five-digit number known as a short code.

snip...
But legal experts said private companies like Verizon probably have the legal right to decide which messages to carry. The laws that forbid common carriers from interfering with voice transmissions on ordinary phone lines do not apply to text messages.

The dispute over the Naral messages is a skirmish in the larger battle over the question of "net neutrality" — whether carriers or Internet service providers should have a voice in the content they provide to customers.

"This is right at the heart of the problem," said Susan Crawford, a visiting professor at the University of Michigan law school, referring to the treatment of text messages. "The fact that wireless companies can choose to discriminate is very troubling."

In turning down the program, Verizon, one of the nation's two largest wireless carriers, told Naral that it does not accept programs from any group "that seeks to promote an agenda or distribute content that, in its discretion, may be seen as controversial or unsavory to any of our users." Naral provided copies of its communications with Verizon to The New York Times.


http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/09/27/america/27verizon.php?WT.mc_id=rsstechnology

[LiberalFighter]

1. Aren't all right wing republican programs controversial and unsavory?

[Selatius]

2. No, simply because right wing ideology is favored by corporate interests seeking more profit.

Tax cuts for rich people.
Privatization of government programs by selling the programs to corporations.
Contracts for corporations, such as those for the war.
Deregulation of the markets giving corporations more discretion to do what they feel is "prudent."

The list goes on and on. It's only controversial when the gatekeepers of the flow of information deem it controversial.