Free Speech
Does our business promote communications regardless of method, topic, or viewpoint?Speech can be restricted in many ways, such as by censoring politically sensitive messages or slowingdown certain types of online traffic. In either case, businesses can easily alienate their user base and run afoul of the law, generating bad press, outraged clients, and governmental intervention. None of this is good for business.
Comcast: In 2008 cable giant Comcast was taken to task by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and members of Congress for interfering with peer-to-peer technologies such as BitTorrent, thereby intruding upon its users' freedom of speech. The widespread press coverage, along with legislative and administrative inquiries, led Comcast to pledge to change its behavior. Nevertheless, the company has been hit with a class-action lawsuit for making false representations about its service and may be paying for its anti-free speech mistake for years to come.
Verizon: Verizon made a costly mistake in 2007 when it told NARAL Pro-Choice America that the nonprofit could not use the telecommunication company’s network to send text messages to people who had requested information updates. The company reversed its decision after receiving a barrage of complaints from activists, members of the media, and legislators. The FCC opened an investigation into the incident, causing senior executives to apologize repeatedly in both written comments and in-person testimony before the agency.
Google: In an important move towards transparency, Google released a Government Requests tool in 2010 to track and display the number of government demands the company receives worldwide, country by country. Although imperfect (the tool doesn’t track all requests, is limited to six months of data, and only counts the numbers of requests received, not the number user records requested), it is a strong step towards educating users about government access to private information held by companies. Google, which had regularly been chastised by privacy organizations and the technology press for a lack of transparency on government requests, was lauded for the move.
-
Promote free expression through your product or service. Your product and community of users will grow and benefit if you open your doors to as many potential users as possible.
Yahoo!: Yahoo! became a free speech leader in 2001 when it refused to cave to pressure from the French government to ban the sale of Nazi memorabilia on the Yahoo! auction site. Yahoo!’s principled stand not only helped to guarantee that Americans would be able to read, think, and speak freely in the marketplace of ideas, but also helped set an important precedent for Internet businesses about the need to stand up to conflicting international laws that threaten the rights of users.
AT&T: Censoring the political speech of the popular rock band Pearl Jam landed AT&T in hot water in 2007. The company censored the first few seconds of its Web cast of the group, replacing the lyrics, "George Bush, find yourself another home," with silence. Although the company quickly reposted an uncensored version, the damage to its reputation could not be reversed as easily.
