Idaho Internet Provider Blocks Facebook, Twitter For Banning President Trump
An internet provider in Idaho-Spokane,Washington blocked Facebook and Twitter after the Big Tech companies decided to permanently ban President Donald Trump, a report says.
The internet provider, YourT1Wifi, sent emails to their customers informing them of the recent changes.
"It has come to our attention that Twitter and Facebook are engaged in Censorship of our Customers and Information," the company said in their email, as per Townhall.
The email further stated that this is the company's response to the bulk of calls they received from their customers. They will have to do it one site at a time but starting with the two big social media platforms.
One customer posted on her Twitter feed screenshots of the e-mail. The content states that about two-thirds of YourT1Wifi users are for the restrictions of websites and platforms that do censorships. They also added their own stance over the removal of Parler by Amazon, Google, and Apple. They think that these big companies colluded to eliminate a competitor.
In the event that a customer needs access to Facebook or Twitter or any site that censors some contents as per their policy, he could call the internet provider to be exempted from the access block.
"So we have a solution if you or your family would still like to be able to connect to Facebook or Twitter please let us know and we can add you to the allowed list to be able to not be blocked from going to these sites and the ones that do want to be blocked will have to do nothing the will just not show up," they said.
Not everyone was pleased by this though. Some customers think it's madness while some misunderstood that the change is a total shutdown of all the said sites in YourT1Wifi's cyberspace.
The company apologizes for the inconvenience that this change would cause to some. They clarified, however, that they are leaving the choice to their customers.
KREM-TV also reports that the internet provider's decision could be considered as a violation to Washington State's Net Neutrality Law which states the following:
"A person engaged in the provision of broadband internet access service in Washington state, insofar as the person is so engaged, may not:
(a) Block lawful content, applications, services, or non harmful devices, subject to reasonable network management;
(b) Impair or degrade lawful internet traffic on the basis of internet content, application, or service, or use of a non harmful device, subject to reasonable network management; or
(c) Engage in paid prioritization
This matter is being looked into by General Bob Ferguson, Washington State Attorney.
In their second email, the internet company explained the legitimacy of their decision. The change was based on their "acceptable use policy"
"Per our contract and [sic] Acceptable use policy we can block anything we want if we deem it to break any rules or illegal or harmful to our customers and more..." they wrote in the email.
In line with these efforts of standing up to Big Tech, an editor from Townhall urges their readers to support conservative journalists. She noted that if the Big Tech companies can block President Donald Trump, they can also block anybody.
