Coalition Members Call for an End to Cell Phone Censorship
December 11th, 2007 by Tim KarrMembers of the SavetheInternet.com Coalition today urged the Federal Communications Commission to prohibit cell phone companies from blocking or interfering with text messages sent over their networks.
In a petition to the agency, Public Knowledge, Free Press, U.S. PIRG, Media Access Project, Consumers Union and the New America Foundation said that the companies should treat text messaging like spoken phone conversations — delivering all information to their customers without censorship.
Surprisingly, phone companies like Verizon and AT&T still reserve the right to block your text messages or terminate your cell phone services “without prior notice and for any reason or no reason.”
Text Speech Not So Free
Unless the FCC steps in, free speech could very well end at your cell phone.
That’s why Verizon recently got away with blocking text messages that NARAL Pro-Choice America wanted to send to its members.
While Verizon blamed this incident on a “dusty policy,” which was quickly rewritten, the carrier has steadfastly refused to relinquish its authority to censor future speech over the company’s networks.
Free Press has also sifted through AT&T agreements and found explicit language that reserves their right to cut off messages, block or permanently cease to provide services to anyone — and for no reason.
Verizon’s decision to allow NARAL members to receive messages is a far cry from what is really needed — guaranteed free speech for the millions of Americans who rely on text messaging to contact one another.
“For many people, texting has replaced calling as a way of keeping in touch,” said Gigi B. Sohn, president and co-founder of Public Knowledge. “The FCC should make certain that text messages, and the short codes used to dial them, are protected from interference from telephone companies.”
Free Speech Is Not a Whim
In response to today’s petition, FCC Commissioner Michael J. Copps told the Washington Post that recent examples of wireless censorship are proof that stronger rules are needed to keep companies from discriminating.
Mobile carriers can and still decide arbitrarily which customers get to use text messages, refusing service to those they find controversial or who compete with their business. “This type of discrimination would be unthinkable and illegal in the world of voice communications,” today’s petition states. “It should be so in the world of text messaging as well.”
As more and more people rely upon wireless networks to communicate, we need to revisit the issue of free speech and ensure that it is protected wherever it occurs in text messaging, phone calls, e-mails or over the Internet
At the moment, free speech over cell phone networks used by more than 230 million Americans can be denied at the whim of Verizon and AT&T.
Unless the FCC explicitly prohibits discrimination on all these platforms, the censorship policies of the carrier cartel are what we can expect to see time and again.
