Net Neutrality: Why It Still Matters

AT&T is really doing us a favor in giving us plenty of examples of unrelenting asshattery. A couple of months ago, they censored content during a Pearl Jam concert broadcast when Eddie Vedder sang some anti-Bush lyrics.

Now, they're just flipping the bird at everyone with their new terms of service that effectively give them the permission to cancel your service if you say nasty things about them:

AT&T may immediately terminate or suspend all or a portion of your Service, any Member ID, electronic mail address, IP address, Universal Resource Locator or domain name used by you, without notice, for conduct that AT&T believes (a) violates the Acceptable Use Policy; (b) constitutes a violation of any law, regulation or tariff (including, without limitation, copyright and intellectual property laws) or a violation of these TOS, or any applicable policies or guidelines, or (c) tends to damage the name or reputation of AT&T, or its parents, affiliates and subsidiaries.

So, let's say I subscribed to one of their services and had a bad customer service experience. Then, I decide to blog about it and complain that they suck. Sounds to me like AT&T would then be able to cancel my service due to my bad review which tends to damage their reputation.

Well, lucky for me I don't subscribe to any of AT&T services, so I don't particularly mind stating that their corporate censorship of free speech is for shit, which is more damaging to their already fucked up reputation than anything a customer could come up with.

Assholes Through & Through.