(2007-09-27) Verizon Blocks Naral Text Messaging

Saying it had the right to block "controversial or unsavory" text messages, Verizon Wireless has rejected a request from Naral Pro-Choice America, the Abortion rights group, to make Verizon's mobile network available for a Text Messaging program. The other leading wireless carriers have accepted the program, which allows people to sign up for text messages from Naral by sending a message to a five-digit number known as a short code... legal experts said private companies like Verizon probably have the legal right to decide which messages to carry. The laws that forbid Common Carrier-s from interfering with voice transmissions on ordinary phone lines do not apply to text messages.