Verizon Caught Censoring Pro-Choice Text Messages

Posted by Paddy at 11:00 AM on September 27, 2007.

This post, written by Paddy, originally appeared on Cliff Schecter's Blog

Verizon Rejects Text Messages From Abortion Rights Group

By ADAM LIPTAK

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.

Text messaging is a growing political tool in the United States and a dominant one abroad, and such sign-up programs are used by many political candidates and advocacy groups to send updates to supporters.

Get that. THEY know what you should have/want, and they don't give a big patooey if you sign up for it, you're just plain not going to get it, nuh uh, not on their service.

I've been putting off checking into Working Assets, but it looks like today is the day I get to tell Verizon what I think about this crap and the retroactive immunity they want for spying on me.

UPDATE

NEW YORK - Verizon Wireless said on Thursday it reversed an earlier refusal to allow an abortion rights advocacy group to set up a text message alert system with subscribers and changed its policy on such messaging.

(snip)

"The decision not to allow text messaging on an important, though sensitive, public policy issue was incorrect, and we have fixed the process that led to this isolated incident," said Verizon Wireless spokesman Jeffrey Nelson in a statement.

Tagged as: privacy, abortion rights, naral, verizon, civil palestinians

Paddy is a regular contributor to Cliff Schecter.com.