WASHINGTON, DC —In late September, Verizon Wireless rejected a request from NARAL Pro-Choice American abortion rights group to make Verizon’s mobile network available for a text message program. The company reversed its position on this in less than a week after receiving 20,000 texts in less than two hours complaining about the censorship.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.
Text messaging is a widely-used political tool in the United States and such sign-up programs are used by many political candidates and advocacy groups to send updates to supporters. Verizon Wireless told NARAL that the mobile company was asserting their right to block “controversial or unsavory” text messages.
The dispute over the NARAL messages echoes the larger question of “net neutrality” — whether carriers or internet service providers should have a say over the content they provide to customers.
“This is right at the heart of the problem,” said Susan Crawford, a visiting professor at the University of Michigan law school, referring to the treatment of text messages, to the New York Times. “The fact that wireless companies can choose to discriminate is very troubling.”
A spokesman for Verizon Wireless said the decision turned on the subject matter of the text messages and not on NARAL’s position on abortion. “Our internal policy is in fact neutral on the position,” said spokesman, Jeffrey Nelson. “It is the topic itself” — abortion — “that has been on our list.”
Verizon Wireless serves the text message needs of many Democratic and Republican presidential campaigns, Save Darfur and Amnesty International. Anti-choice group National Right to Life Committee has no text message program in place for its members.
Celebrating NARAL’s victory, organization president Nancy Keegan said in a statement, “Let’s hope Verizon has learned a lesson today: citizen participation in democracy is neither ‘unsavory’ nor ‘controversial.’ As soon as the story first came out last night, we were deluged with calls from Americans outraged over Verizon’s corporate censorship. We thank all of our members, bloggers, and other concerned citizens who joined us in putting pressure on Verizon to reverse this decision. We should take great solace in this initial victory, but we must remain vigilant in preventing corporations, business interests, and other third parties from blocking Americans’ ability to participate in the democratic process.”
