A Phone Company's Discretion Isn't Enough

[David Farber <dfarber () cs cmu edu>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: dewayne () warpspeed com (Dewayne Hendricks)
Date: September 29, 2007 1:02:06 PM EDT
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <xyzzy () warpspeed com>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] A Phone Company's Discretion Isn't Enough

A Phone Company's Discretion Isn't Enough

Submitted by Art Brodsky on September 27, 2007 - 3:34pm.
<http://www.publicknowledge.org/node/1202>
Once upon a time, the law governed what telephone companies could and  
couldn’t do to affect the content of telephone calls sent over the  
network. The answer, basically, was nothing. The Communications Act  
provided that it would be “unlawful” for carriers to “subject any  
particular person, class of persons, or locality to any undue or  
unreasonable prejudice or disadvantage.”

Over time, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has whittled  
away the protections consumers had from the discrimination the law  
was supposed to prevent by changing the definitions of the types of  
calls or uses to which the law applies. Now, Internet traffic is  
excluded. Cellphone traffic excluded. Text messaging excluded. Any  
service offered over Digital Subscriber Line, fiber lines or cable  
were moved out from under the law that allowed consumers to be secure  
that they could use their telephones, or other devices, in any legal  
way they chose.

What has replaced a well-known legal standard is the much more  
amorphous, and much less public, rule of discretion. That is, the  
carriers do what they want and there’s nothing anyone can do about it.

This morning brought the latest example, when the New York Times  
reported that Verizon turned down the application of NARAL Pro Choice  
to be set up so that it could send text messages to their members who  
requested the service. This could not be more clear. This is not  
spam. NARAL, as other activist and political organizations have done,  
wanted an effective way of communicating quickly with their members  
who voluntarily signed up to receive text messages informing them of  
events or asking them to take some sort of action.

PK’s reaction to the Times story is here

The explanation NARAL’s vendor, Mobile Commons, first received, was  
that “VZW (Verizon Wireless) legal does not accept issue-oriented  
(abortion, war etc.) programs – only basic, general politican-related  
campaigns (Mitt Romney, Hillary Clinton, etc.)” After further  
inquiry, NARAL got a fuller explanation: “For now VZW will not accept  
programs that are issue oriented from lobbyist [sic], PACs or any  
organization that seeks to promote an agenda or distribute content  
that, in its discretion, may be seen as controversial or unsavory to  
any of our users. General informational campaigns about candidates  
are acceptable that the content involved is, in VZW’s sole  
discretion, not issue-oriented or controversial in nature.”

[snip]



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