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Are Cable and Phone Companies Censoring Internet Content? Senators Seek Investigation
By Privacy Maven | October 28, 2007
Uneven customer service is bad enough. It is further disheartening to find out that cable and phone companies may be censoring and restricting our Internet access:
Two Senators on Friday called for a congressional hearing to investigate reports that phone and cable companies are unfairly stifling communications over the Internet and on cell phones.
Sens. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., and Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, said the incidents involving several companies, including Comcast Corp., Verizon Wireless and AT&T Inc., have raised serious concerns over the companies’”power to discriminate against content.”
They want the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee to investigate whether such incidents were based on legitimate business policies or unfair and anticompetitive practices and if more federal regulation is needed.
“The phone and cable companies have previously stated that they would never use their market power to operate as content gatekeepers and have called efforts to put rules in place to protect consumers ‘a solution in search of a problem,’” they said in a letter to Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, the committee’s chairman.
A committee spokeswoman declined to comment on the matter.
Topics: Censorship |