AW: [governance] RE: Human rights and new gTLDs

[David Goldstein]

This debate on human rights and gTLDs is interesting, but surely the role of ICANN in this debate, that is possible censorship, is minor when one looks at other players. For example, Verizon and AT&T have both been panned in the press in the last week for censorship. Admittedly Verizon reversed its decision, but will AT&T? And did Verizon reverse its decision due to freedom of speech issues, or public pressure?

Timothy Karr writing in the Huffington Post writes of both issues and digs out of the AT&T terms of service the following:
AT&T may "immediately terminate or suspend all or a portion of your
service ... without notice, for conduct that AT&T believes ...
tends to damage the name or reputation of AT&T, or its parents,
affiliates and subsidiaries."

This is a real and happening area of censorship, yet there is no discussion here as to the merits of such terms of service, nor of Verizon censoring messages that can go across its network.

Free speech advocates can huff and puff about the supposed First Amendment in the US, but when incidents such as these occur, it makes non-US citizens see it's only a freedom of speech, if others will let you...

For the article in The Huffington Post, see:
What's the Biggest Threat to Free Speech in America
If you thought phone companies were simply supposed to get you connected, think again. Over the last week we learned that the nation's two largest telecommunications firms want to get into the business of censorship as well - blocking the free flow of information sent over phones and the Internet.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/timothy-karr/whats-the-biggest-threat_b_66708.html

Regards
David
 
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David Goldstein
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