America's Toilets & Testes threatens to disconnect critics

Because this is a day ending in 'y', you knew AT&T had to be at it yet again, and sure enough, they are.

Internet providers like to employ vague terms of service. Often they'll prohibit "offensive" content, a provision that could technically cover just about anything. Fortunately a lot of ISP's (especially small ones) won't enforce such vague terms against customers, as long as their content has some redeeming value and isn't defamatory. Many ISP's consider it wise to have these fuzzy provisions to protect themselves from being targeted by SLAPP lawsuits over what customers post, not to stifle legitimate expression.

But what AT&T is doing now is less ambiguous, and if it's allowed to continue or set a precedent, you can pretty much kiss the Internet goodbye.

First, a little bit about Worldnet, which is AT&T's dialup ISP: Worldnet is probably the most troublesome national ISP in America. Which is fitting because AT&T is probably the most vexing communications company in America. Which in turn is suitable because several years ago AT&T was the top corporate contributor to Republican political campaigns. I say Worldnut (which is not affiliated with the equally right-wing WorldNetDaily "news" site) is at the bottom of the heap because I've had dealings with one of its users impersonating me. For nearly 2 years, Worldnet refused to do anything about it.

Also, as of just a few months ago, I'm still finding copious Usenet spam from Worldnet users consisting of racist propaganda. These offensive posts are crossposted to 5 newsgroups - where they're not even on-topic.

Furthermore, America's Toilets & Testes has on several occasions made use of phone slamming to send me bills for phone services I didn't order. I refused to pay these bills - which forced AT&T to eventually stop trying to collect on them.

Now AT&T has unveiled new terms of service for users of its DSL Internet. Section 5 of this document is rather chilling: It seems to give AT&T the power to revoke users' accounts for daring to publicly criticize AT&T or any of its subsidiaries.

Isn't that like the government censoring dissidents? Listen, peeps, AT&T is a monopoly. In some areas, it's not just the only phone company but also the only high-speed Internet provider. Not only that, but it has a monopoly usually because governments gave it a monopoly in the form of exclusive franchise agreements. Censorship by AT&T in these cases is therefore government censorship. Even if the monopoly isn't government-established, AT&T's new policy is still fatal to the free flow of ideas if AT&T is the only provider in your area. AT&T's new restriction stinks of corporate tyranny and a desire to suppress dissent.

It's clear that AT&T is trying to silence those who rightly take issue with its deplorable practices. But even if it isn't a monopoly, it's questionable whether AT&T even has a right to censor content that's not illegal, because they're a common carrier. That would be a bit like the phone company disconnecting someone for criticizing them in a private phone conversation.

When people exposed how tyrannical the ToileTestes crew's new rule is, AT&T quickly shifted into damage control and denied that it plans to pull customers' accounts for criticizing AT&T. We can picture AT&T cursing in frustration because someone blew the lid off its plans.

If AT&T does pull accounts for legitimate dissent, it will encourage other Internet monopolies to do the same. Sooner or later there's going to have to be more oversight over the high-speed industry.

(Source: http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070930-att-threatens-to-disconnect-subscribers-who-are-critical-of-the-company.html)