We Need Policies Not Apologies
Verizon got caught blocking pro-choice text messages on Wednesday. The phone company backpedaled on Thursday and lifted the ban. It was a simple glitch a Verizon spokesman declared, and they felt really, really bad about it.
Today, Verizon is in full damage control, hoping this cloud will blow over in time for its next assault on free speech.
But apologies aren't cutting it anymore. Verizon's censorship of the national pro-choice organization NARAL is just the latest example in a laundry list of phone company efforts to block, filter or interfere with the free flow of information on cell phones and the Internet.
 Rep. Dingell: Verizon must stop discriminating |
Earlier in the year, both Verizon and AT&T were caught handing over private customer phone records to the National Security Agency. The phone companies first denied it and then started a secret campaign with the White House to gain immunity from any lawsuits.
Getting Our Message Through
This pattern of abuse shows that powerful phone companies cannot be trusted to safeguard our basic freedoms. The democratic principles of free speech and open communication are too important to be entrusted to corporate gatekeepers. Whether it's liberal or conservative, Democrat or Republican, pro-choice or pro-gun, the phone companies can't pick and choose what messages get through.
Thankfully, a few leaders in Congress have had it with phony apologies from phone companies. Rep. John Dingell, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, reacted to Verizon's ban - and reversal - with strong words: "I am particularly concerned by [Verizon's] ability and apparent willingness to interfere when customers choose to receive legitimate and legal communications from an organization...I ask Verizon to decisively state that it will no longer discriminate against any legal content its customers request from any organization."
 Sen. Dorgan: Protect network neutrality |
"Verizon may have reversed its initial decision in this case, and I'm glad they did. But the fact that they were willing and able to take their initial action is very troublesome," Sen. Byron Dorgan of North Dakota told eWeek. "The network service providers often claim that the effort to ensure network neutrality is a solution in search of a problem, but this is fresh evidence that the problem is real and with us now," Dorgan said. "We need to protect network neutrality by law."
No Apologies
Indeed, the blocking of text messages and interfering with Web traffic is perfectly legal under the current rules - a regulatory offspring of some of the most intense phone company lobbying in history.
Censorship by AT&T and Verizon shows us what we can expect in a future if these lobbyists are successful - and network gatekeepers lock up their full control of both Internet and wireless markets.
Much is at stake. This week, Verizon squelched free speech. Before they're forced to apologize for another glitch, we need to put in place laws that protect our rights not only to speak out on the streets, but on the Internet, on cell phones -- everywhere.
Follow Timothy Karr on Twitter: www.twitter.com/TimKarr
Try actually learning what your rights are before you erroneously complain that they are being infringed upon.
This seems to me more in the way of a high ranking individual (or a group of individuals) who have the power to dictate a policy that promotes their presumed right-wing Christian agenda.
http://www.workingassetswireless.com/?event=showSpecialOfferHome&pageID=109
I realize Verizon isn't the only corporation implementing this tactic as a large revenue stream. But there's, incredibly, no watchdog or check and balance countering this systematic theft flying under the radar.
Corporations are way out of control and need to be reigned in.
Boycott Verizon.
If you don't, Verizon's cute little attack on Freedom of Speech will look like an anthill on a mountain.
Call these elected morons! Send an e-mail. The e-mail's even free.
PA Firefighter
"BUCK FUSH!"
It is ok, because the last I heard from
Mrs Clinton, "lobbyists are people, too."
And people would not want to hurt, censor,or
eavesdrop on other people.
Let's make one thing perfectly clear
"Lobbyist are people, too." Thank you,
Mrs Clinton for pointing that out.
For those not in a formal educational institution, "education" means mostly "access to reliable information." The traditional media no longer can be trusted to provide fair and complete access to such information. [That's what Dan Rather's lawsuit is about. (MSM are piling on Rather, when the fact is his story was right. Check Media Matters for conformation.) That's what Abrams's squelching of Shuster's calling-out of Blackburn's ignorance about the names of those members of her district her own votes are sending to their deaths is about.]
The "fourth establishment" have been suborned by the managers, who are puppets for the owners, who are major business conglomerates. The reporters (apart from Fox--there are no true journalists on Fox) might want to report with integrity. But, as Shuster's and Rather's slap-downs demonstrate, journalists are not allowed to follow the story and report with integrity.
The reporters and producers are controlled by managers, who are controlled by big brass, who are controlled by business conglomerates, who ... Well, we all know what follows.
The so-called "fourth estate" is now owned, effectively, by those committed to a specific social/political/economic set of policies. Individual producers or reporters might wish personally to speak truth to power, but they are hamstrung by their bosses. Rather was fired for refusing to play along. Shuster has thus far been retained at the expense of kissing ass and voicing an "apology" dictated--literally!-- by his boss, Abrams.
The only hope for democracy is free, community-wide, high speed access to the internet. As recent examples of censorship by Verizon and others demonstrate, the cause of democracy absolutly cannot allow that access to be filtered by mega-conglomerate business interests. The internet must be free. That is absolutely the last hope for democracy.
I constantly hear from people who have bluetooth cellphones with Verizon wireless that they can't use it to transfer files from their phone using bluetooth. Sick.
That's why I don't use Verizon or Sprint or any non-GSM carrier. I buy unlocked phones directly from the manufacturer that can be used on any GSM network (i.e. the rest of the world). I buy a cell phone because of its features and I don't want some suit and tie telling me which features I can or cannot use.
It's a small thing and sometimes a bit inconvenient to ask and then stop shopping in popular places but if I just flap my mouth and don't take a little stand, then what am I worth? We don't need a movement, just do it! Don't purchase from companies whose policies offend you!
Verizon is a company that regularly forces employees to train people to replace them for lower wages.
They don't care about you, your phone, or your problems. Just pay the goddamm bill.
That's what they care about.