AT&T Rescinds Text Message Block…

This morning, after news broke that AT&T had refused to allow the abortion rights group Naral Pro-Choice America to send text messages to supporters, the telecom changed its position. Now, the company says it will allow Naral to send text messages.

Even though AT&T reversed itself, the incident shows what can happen when Internet access providers pick and choose which content to allow over their networks. As last night’s Times article pointed out, that power is at the heart of the debate over whether to pass net neutrality laws, which would prohibit Internet access providers from refusing to transmit certain content or degrading service to some publishers.

Here, AT&T undoubtedly was concerned about the bad press it was receiving for prohibiting a group with a sizable opt-in membership from sending text messages, but it’s not clear how AT&T or telecoms will treat other, less well-known groups. For that matter, it’s also not clear how many nonprofits or political groups AT&T has blocked from sending text messages in the past.

The next time AT&T and others go to Washington to lobby against net neutrality laws, they should be called to account for how they’ve addressed such issues in the past