Verizon Blocks Pro-Choice Messages

[pcollins]

I belive a minority will make the association. About as many as the number of people who think the phone company is enabling NAMBLA.

 

It's more people than its worth, especially when you can deflect criticism better by just tossing up your hands and pleading "hey, blame those guys."

 

And I'm free to share my phone conversation with my neighbor, but it was still a private line during our phone consversation.

 

You are not, however, free to record the conversation in most states without your neighbor's consent. This is just one way in which voice communications carry a greater expectation of privacy than electronic text of even a personal nature. Of course, if we were to replace your friend with an enterprise like a business or an advocacy group, we step into an entirely new realm.

 

Bulk SMS, again, is not Verizon's content. People already know this.

 

Doesn't really matter. The question is whether or not Verizon's efforts to keep its brand at both end points raises its exposure to critics who'd prefer they do more to regulate content across their networks.

 

I don't believe near the number of people will mistake Naral's messages for Verison's endorsement that you seem to.

 

Verizon clearly disagrees with you.

 

I think they're smarter than that.

 

Doesn't mean their not suspicious. Hell, why not? We question the motives of anyone involved even tangentially in controversial issues. I'm not above it, NARAL isn't above it, Right to Life isn't above it, and I like to think that all of us are fairly bright people. Verizon would do well to plead bullying rather than stand up as martyr for the pro-choice cause.

 

Exactly, so if SMS goes with phone service, then why would anyone associate Naral's message with Verizon?

 

For the same reason that folks still using AOL's walled garden expect AOL to monitor content that might be too racy for their children yet give a pass to an ISP that just gives you a tap and an IP address. The branding itself increases people's expectations in the regulation of broadcast content--subscriber or not. This isn't unusual, even cable broadcasters have Standards and Practices. Even Cinemax waits until late night before showing nothing more than softcore porn.

 

They don't associate their own messages with Verizon so why do you suddenly think they'll incorrectly associate Naral's?

 

Because people expected the same from the walled gardens when they were the rage. Mobile phone carriers are essentially their descendants.

 

So, if Showtime shows child porn then you're going to blame Directv?

 

You get the Showtime brand at your end, so you complain to Showtime. In fact, you go the extra mile to pay for Showtime. Now if they started broadcasting it on basic cable, you'd expect them to go after both the broadcaster and carrier. Hell, the more the broadband carriers get involved in the end to end business, the more consumers expect from them--pop up blocker and kid protection software bundles and whatnot. Verizon doesn't even offer a clean branding distinction between itself and partner broadcasters; considering the cash they rake in from signing up SMSCs, I don't see them ever compromising that business model in favor of something less lucrative that divorces them more completely from SMS content.

 

The bulk SMS is broadcast, I agree, I didn't realize that was everyone's hangup. Still, I see no precedence to burn the carrier over the intelligence here. The carrier carries whatever intelligence you provide and most people understand that.

 

The precedent for attacking the carrier emerged recently as the telecoms started vertically integrating to the end points. Think about it, at one point their sole responsibility to you was the line (you might get a dinky little touchtone phone worth roughly its weight in manure). That pretty much stayed the same throughout the 1990s. Now they're actually bundling the devices and applications for you and providing their own value added content. On top of that, their brand is all over the place.