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Do you think AT&T's banning of 4chan image boards to be a violation of censorship laws?
For those not in the know, 4chan is a contriversial online community, where pornography is passed around in the way most people use a semicolon.
Earlier today, AT&T blocked access to the site (specifically the image boards) for people using their DSL service.
Now, in their defense, AT&T allegedly blocked it because users were issuing DDoS attacks (Denial of Service attacks), which takes up a huge amount of bandwidth. So they blocked the site off entirely. (rather than just penalizing the people who issued the attacks & ate the bandwidth).
Is this censorship, or a fair move on AT&T's part?
5 Answers
- Songbyrd JPA ✡Lv 71 decade agoFavorite Answer
Fair, maybe not. Legal for sure. You have not first amendment protection from a private company. You can always switch to Vios.
Source(s): s--attorney 25 years - 1 decade ago
Private companies are not bound by first amendment law like the government is.
AT&T could block access to all pornography and it would be totally legal. In Green v. Am. Online (AOL), 318 F.3d 465 (3d Cir. N.J. 2003), the court found that AOL wasn't bound by the same constitutional guidelines that a governmental entity would be,
The court found that: 230(c)(2) immunizes from liability providers and users of interactive computer service who voluntarily make good faith efforts to restrict access to material they consider to be objectionable, for example, "obscene," "excessively violent," or "harassing.".
Do I like what AT&T is doing? No. But is it legal and protected? Yes.
Source(s): Green v. Am. Online (AOL), 318 F.3d 465, 472 (3d Cir. N.J. 2003) - rickinnocalLv 71 decade ago
A private company has the absolute right to decide what it wants to allow access to, or block access to.
"Anti-censorship Laws" restrict the power of the *government* to censor content, not private parties.
Richard
- Anonymous1 decade ago
No idea what you are talking about, but AT&T can block any content that they wish. It doesn't matter if it's pornography or Spongebob. Corporations enjoy the same protections from the Constitution as you do.
- ?Lv 41 decade ago
censorship. i cant wait for them to feel the backlash of the war they started. they have no right to block it. it is censorship.
EDIT:yes, they have the right to block it, but they have no right to do it.
Source(s): we do not forgive we do not forget we are legion
