Verizon Wireless’s ban of a NARAL Pro-Choice America text-messagi...
Verizon Wireless’s ban of a NARAL Pro-Choice America text-messaging program was an “incorrect interpretation of a dusty internal policy,” the carrier said Thursday, approving NARAL’s planned SMS alerts. But the ban’s reversal may not have cooled outrage about Verizon’s…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
original decision. House Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell, D-Mich., and FCC Commissioner Michael Copps slammed Verizon’s interference with consumers’ ability to choose the mobile content they can receive. Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam told NARAL President Nancy Keenan the rejection was based on a policy “designed to ward against… anonymous hate messaging and adult materials sent to children” and was “developed before text messaging protection such as spam filters adequately protected customers from unwanted messages.” “Verizon’s latest statement does not identify any substantive change in policy,” Dingell said. “Reports of Verizon’s actions raise troubling questions about a network operator’s ability to determine what its customers receive and from whom… I ask Verizon to decisively state that it will no longer discriminate against any legal content its customers request from any organization.” FCC Commissioner Michael Copps said in a statement the NARAL incident is a good argument for net neutrality and shows the “folly” of reclassifying various forms of communications to no longer fall under Title II of the Communications Act. “This incident illustrates the danger of allowing a handful of telecommunications behemoths to become content gatekeepers,” Copps added. “It highlights the need for strong net neutrality rules.”