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.
Saying he had the right to deny his business to a common carrier that abuses its power and abrogates freedom of speech, NewMexiKen has decided to leave Verizon after nine years, iPhone or no iPhone.
(You know, if every Verizon Wireless customer who finds the company’s position abhorrent were to call and threaten to quit, even as a bluff, it might get these arrogant bastards to (1) reconsider and (2) be more careful before they pull this un-American crap again. This isn’t about abortion, this is about freedom of expression. They can’t limit voice communications, why can they limit text?)
Update 9:25 a.m. MDT Thursday:
They’ve changed their pointy little minds.
I have Cingular, “The new AT&T,” and was seriously reconsidering switching over to Verizon, as to save a fair bit of money, a good portion of which goes towards my near-dependency on text messages. And, as much as I could use a few extra dollars every month, I don’t think that I could support that kind of thought. If this kind of thinking goes into their way of doing business, I’d rather not be a part of that.
See update above.
BOYCOTT VERIZON, whether they reconsider or not. Such nerve.