Verizon backs off from political censorship of text messaging

Published on September 27th, 2007

Verizon Wireless will allow an abortion rights group to set up a text message system for its subscribers after initially refusing the request based on what the company called an outdated screening policy.

The second-largest U.S. mobile phone carrier had denied a request from NARAL Pro-Choice America to set up alerts for subscribers who sign up for notices by sending a text message to a number known as a short code.

“The bottom line is they got caught in the act,” said NARAL spokesman Ted Miller. “They have approved short codes for multiple other vendors and other organizations. What Verizon did reflects how a corporation can unilaterally try to censor messages from people who have asked to receive them.”

Originally, Verizon Wireless said it would not allow groups to distribute issue-oriented material that “in its discretion, may be seen as controversial or unsavory to any of our users.”

Just because Verizon owns a significant portion of Congress and the White House doesn’t give them the right to act directly like our ruler.

13 users responded in " Verizon backs off from political censorship of text messaging "

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# 1 moss said, on September 27th, 2007 at 2:02 pm

It doesn’t?

# 2 OhForTheLoveOf said, on September 27th, 2007 at 5:11 pm

The graphic above violates Godwin’s Law!!!!!!

Which sucks because I was really looking forward to writing some long liberal rants about how much a love killing babies and how much I hate America

# 3 moss said, on September 27th, 2007 at 5:15 pm

So, where were you the first time it was used? You missed your chance to whine – twice.

http://www.dvorak.org/blog/?p=13627

# 4 DeLeMa said, on September 27th, 2007 at 11:04 pm

I used to work for these guys..they contribute heavily to “conservative” groups.

# 5 Mr. Fusion said, on September 28th, 2007 at 4:45 am

Just because Verizon owns a significant portion of Congress and the White House doesn’t give them the right to act directly like our ruler.

Are you sure about that?

# 6 Howard said, on September 28th, 2007 at 6:45 am

The US (and Canada is not far behind) has already become a neo-feudal society. Instead of Lords and Ladies with inherited titles owning and running everything, it is huge international corporations and those who serve them. The folks who are on the inside get the big salaries and the tax-free perks — and they want to keep them. Not surprisingly, they publish whatever they like and censor what they don’t like. There is nothing surprising or even sinister about that. It’s ordinary human nature.

And we allowed it to happen simply because we want ever increasing amounts of the stuff that they produce — which is also very human.

So the question is not whom to blame for this very sorry situation but how to fix it?

Howard
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

# 7 Rich said, on September 28th, 2007 at 9:00 am

I don’t own a phone so please enlighten me- does this mean Verizon users get unsolicited text messages from various orgs, including pro-abortion groups? If Verizon is a bunch of Nazis, then the pro-abortion groups are Nazis on crack. At least they don’t advocate killing unborn babies.

# 8 Brandon said, on September 28th, 2007 at 9:01 am

Since when does a member of our society not have a right to decide what corporations they’re willing to purchase from? For years I didn’t shop at Target because they contributed to NARAL. Members of the pro-life movement spent their money and bought a majority share in Target’s parent company, then changed the companies policy that way.

Would it not also be feasible for NARAL members to switch to a provider that isn’t Verizon, and attempt change with the power of the free market? One of the biggest problems in America today is that people are much too quick to turn over all their problems to attorneys, instead of organizing grassoots movements to affect the changes they’d like to see.

# 9 Brandon said, on September 28th, 2007 at 9:12 am

I forgot some stuff–

Rich, no, only NARAL members who signed up for the text messages would recieve them.

Also, I am due to get a new cell phone contract (I moved and AT&T doesn’t cover where I am). The fact that Verizon is ballsy enough to try and block NARAL will more than likely push me towards them as my next service provider, as opposed to Sprint or the like. Just saying. The free market should be the decider.

# 10 V said, on September 28th, 2007 at 9:16 am

The name Verizon is a portmanteau of veritas and horizon. In Roman mythology, Veritas (meaning truth) was the goddess of truth and a daughter of Saturn. Veritas is also the name given to the Roman virtue of truthfulness, which was considered one of the main virtues any good Roman should have possessed.

Truth means respecting Life, therefore a company whose very name stands for it must act on it. Though initially they did, the evil forces of the pro-choicers have bent the ray of hope (at least for now).

# 11 Misanthropic Scott said, on September 28th, 2007 at 10:58 am

I find it interesting that, until they got hammered by emails from the likes of me and many others, they considered NARAL more controversial than phone sex (text sex? txtsx? whatever).

# 12 Misanthropic Scott said, on September 28th, 2007 at 11:07 am

#7 – Rich,

Um … where do I begin??!!?

1. Having a short text number means that users can send text messages to NARAL more easily.
2. Pro-choice is not pro-abortion. Most pro-choice people also support sex education and condom distribution and other methods that truly reduce abortions, unlike making them illegal, which just kills women and their fetuses.
3. The unborn are not yet babies. They are fetuses. When someone asks how old you are, do you count from birth or from conception? Which one is on your driver’s license, assuming the state feels you are mentally competent to drive?
4. Your comment about comparing pro-choice people to “Nazis on crack” is incredibly offensive to anyone who lived through the holocaust or has family members that didn’t.
5. I just have to say it, you really sound like a complete fucktard when you make such comments. You need to do a bit of introspection to figure out why you believe you know what’s best for everyone else in the world, especially those who actually have a uterus, presumably unlike yourself.

Personally, I consider myself to have given my children the greatest gift imaginable by not conceiving them at this point in this massively screwed up and deteriorating world.

# 13 Misanthropic Scott said, on September 28th, 2007 at 11:10 am

#10 – V,

Pro-choice is pro-life. Making abortion illegal only moves it to backrooms where women and their fetuses will die. Want to reduce abortion? Try funding real sex education. Try condom distribution in schools.

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