T-Mobile’s Grand Anti-Pot Text Blockade [Censorship]

T-Mobile is catching flak for abruptly banning its customers from receiving text updates from WeedMaps, an opt-in service that points you closer to the nearest legal medical marijuana dispensary. Does T-Mobile have the appropriate to stifle legal smokers?

Ez Texting, a company which makes a speciality of carpet bombing you with mass-texted advertisements (TEXT CUPCAKE to 3424 FOR MORE INFO ON CUPCAKES), represents WeedMaps, and has filed suit on its behalf. In keeping with court papers, T-Mobile has confirmed the blockade, and despite attempts at negotiation, isn’t budging: in case you’re a T-Mobile customer, you’re going to need to score your weed in other places.

Is this legal? It’s worth keeping in mind that WeedMaps, ostensibly, makes use only of authorized dispensaries in states where such use is allowed. The service can’t be considered spam, either, so T-Mobile can’t say it’s protecting its customers from that.

So what is it protecting them from? Gigi Sohn, of consumer rights group Public Knowledge , says the blockade ” is a further example of a completely arbitrary decision by a carrier to block text message calls between consumers and organizations they need to communicate with.” But I’m unsure how ” totally arbitrary” it really is-this sounds to us like more corporate information whitewashing for the sake of PR. [ NY Times ]

Source

This post is tagged: advertisements, arbitrary decision, corporate information, legal medical marijuana, medical marijuana dispensary, public knowledge