Internet provider to block Twitter, Facebook for customers who ask after the social media giants banned President Trump
Twitter and Facebook just got a digital glove to their faces.
It's relatively a tiny glove — but the social media giants still might feel the sting.
What happened?
In the wake of Twitter and Facebook banning President Donald Trump following the U.S. Capitol siege that leftists — and some conservatives — say Trump incited, an internet provider in Idaho says it's blocking Twitter and Facebook for customers who request it, KREM-TV reported.
The station said Your T1 WIFI provides internet services to North Idaho and the Spokane, Washington, area — and that it got calls from customers about both social media sites.
"It has come to our attention that Twitter and Facebook are engaged in censorship of our customers and information," an email to Your T1 WIFI customers reads:
Umm from my North Idaho internet provider.... this is INSANE. https://t.co/vzy9tSDRAp— krista yep (@krista yep)1610322893.0
The above letter indicates that Your T1 WIFI had been getting calls from customers asking that it not display Facebook or Twitter, and saying they didn't want their children to see the social media sites, either.
At first the internet provider said it would block Facebook and Twitter outright unless customers specifically asked Your T1 WIFI to allow Twitter and Facebook to be viewed — but KREM said the internet provider changed its approach Monday and said Twitter and Facebook would be blocked only for those who request such an action.
The station said the Your T1 WIFI customer forwarded to KREM additional emails from the internet provider that said two-thirds of customers wanted Twitter and Facebook blocked — and that Your T1 WIFI's contract and acceptable use policy allows it to block anything that violates its rules or that's "illegal or harmful to our customers and more."
Anything else?
"Our company does not believe a website or social networking site has the authority to censor what you see and post and hide information from you, stop you from seeing what your friends and family are posting," the initial email from Your T1 WIFI also said.
It added that "we also don't condone what Google, Amazon, Twitter, Facebook, and Apple are doing ... to Parler by trying to strong arm them into submission."
The station added that a representative for the Idaho attorney general said its office lacks jurisdiction in this matter. KREM also said it reached out for comment to the offices of Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, Idaho Gov. Brad Little, the Federal Communications Commission, and the Washington state attorney general.
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Government micromanaging the internet again as net neutrality makes a comeback
The Federal Communications Commission has just voted to restore net neutrality regulations, aiming to rein in internet providers.
The decision was split along party lines with a 3-2 vote and mandates that internet service providers must treat all traffic equally. Under Trump in 2017, the previous 2015 FCC regulations were axed — as his administration did not believe the federal government should micromanage the internet.
The initial regulations were put in place under Obama and aimed at preventing service providers like Verizon or Comcast from blocking or degrading the delivery of services from competitors like Netflix and YouTube.
“That’s where you’d get the buffering,” Jeffy explains to Pat Gray. “They would allot only so much for the Netflix feed bandwidth and whatever, and that was when they were fighting over what each company was going to pay for access and everything.”
“But that’s between private companies,” he adds. “If they’re messing with your internet service, change providers,” Gray agrees. “The free market takes care of this.”
The chairman of the FCC, who is a Democrat, said that these rules reflected the importance of high-speed internet as the main mode of communications for many Americans and that “every consumer deserves access that is fast, open, and fair.”
Gray isn’t so sure he agrees.
“Do we all deserve it, really? And do we deserve it to be provided by the government?” he asks.