I was reading the NY Times the other day and the article "The Verizon Warning" caught my attention. It deals with free speech which I know isn't really a social issue but it is a topic that we have brought up in class on more than once occasion.
The article is about Verizon and how how they censored political speech on one of their mobile devices. The prob was that Verizon denied an application from Naral Pro-Choice America which is a reporductive rights group from sending out certain text messages. Veizon said that its policy was to refuse "issue oriented" text messaging programs from any group that "seeks to promote an agenda or distribute content that may be seen as controverisal or unsavory to any of our users." After the problem was disclosed Verizon said that their new policy is an open network to any legal communication.
This is a case of textbook censorship. And if it had been done on normal phone lines it would have violated common carrier laws that bar interference with voice transmission.
Since we have freedom of speech for a world that used to be just paper and ink we now need policies so we have freedom of speech in our new digital world.
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Great one, Mai. I read this article too. It is interesting how our modus operandi changes when interfacing with technological changes.....this will always happen. Can you use this in your next design problem for Design & Social Change? This would be a leading edge format......make the format as current as you can.
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