Should Your Text Message Be Censored?
Great article in the New York Times today about a text messaging campaign gone awry. It's a really great piece of reporting. On the surface, it covers the decision last week by Verizon to censor a text message that NARAL Pro-Choice America wanted to send to its supporters. This week, Verizon reversed the decision, saying "It was an incorrect interpretation of a dusty internal policy."
What's most interesting though, is the structure that leaves these kinds of decisions in the hands of the providers. The Times says:
...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 was 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.
Net Neutrality may seem like a wonky policy issue, but you can see here that it could have a very dramatic impact on how our organizations use the Internet to do work. Wherever you stand on the issue, you should take a stand, and you should tell someone about it! Some resources:
Thanks to Marshall K for the Tweet this morning that led me to the article.
