p2pnet news | Freedom:- Verizon Wireless censorship efforts haven’t turned out too well.

“Saying it had the right to block “controversial or unsavory” text messages, Verizon Wireless last week rejected a request from Naral Pro-Choice America, the abortion rights group, to make Verizon’s mobile network available for a text-message program,” says the New York Times.

But now it’s hastily reversed its decision.

Not allowing text messaging, “on an important, though sensitive, public policy issue was incorrect, and we have fixed the process that led to this isolated incident,” the story has company spokesman Jeffrey Nelson saying.

However, “In reversing course today, Verizon did not disclaim the power to block messages it deemed inappropriate, the story states, adding:

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.

‘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.’

The NYT quotes Columbia law professor Timothy Wu as saying it’s possible to find analogies to Verizon’s decision abroad.
“Another entity that controls mass text messages is the Chinese government,” he says in the story.

Slashdot it!

Also See:
New York Times - Verizon Reverses Itself on Abortion Rights Messages, September 27, 2007

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