I guess I did something wrong….
Hi, Bob.
I am a computer software professional with over 40 years in the computer business, so please don’t think that what I’m telling you here is nuts.
Earlier today I tried to send some folks an email with a link to this article on your web site: http://www.black-and-right.com/2008/11/09/viral-email-of-the-day-20/#more-11017. I sent that message via my bellsouth.net (now AT&T) email account, but the message was never delivered. I then sent it again via my own web site’s outgoing email server (which is completely independent of AT&T), and it went through. (I am sending this message via my own web site’s email server, too, and cc’ing myself at one of my alternative email addresses, to make sure it goes out.)
I then sent the same message via bellsouth again, only this time I removed the above link from the message, and this time the message went through. Finally, I sent a new message that contained only the link, with nothing else in the body of the message. The outgoing message was again blocked by bellsouth.net, but not by my own email server.
My conclusion based on these tests is that AT&T’s outgoing email servers are blocking email based on content, and that outgoing email containing links to your site are being blocked by them. Lest you think I’m nuts, I have seen this happen before and can provide you with the details of that incident as well (it involved, of all things, a link to a page on the official campaign web site of one of the presidential candidates.)
I thought that you would want to know that AT&T is engaging in this censorship of outgoing email, which I consider to be a violation of our First Amendment rights.
And by the way, I forgot to mention the most egregious aspect of AT&T’s blocking of outgoing email based purely on content. When they do it, they don’t tell you, the sender, that they’re doing it. That is, they don’t “bounce” the message back to you with an explanation of why they’re not letting it go out. They just suppress your message, and you never know it wasn’t sent. Reprehensible.
Could this be the new norm in the Age of Obama?
h/t Ike for the “Death Star” link
Bob –
Check your email in a few. I am looking at my Websense server to see how you are classified…….
Wow.
To the letter writer: Try it with different links. It could be a filter meant to prevent spammers from sending out links.
Could the same be said for today’s* Jodie Miller video spot not loading at http://newsbusters.org/ ?? And yet, her video: “Newsbusted Laughs at Ayers and Obama” (not sure of the release date) loads and plays at http://www.newsmax.com/ Does this mean there is a problem at the Newsbusted site, or something more sinister in that the site uses AT&T as well and that they are also being censored? It would be interesting to find out the title/substance of today’s video release from Jodie to see if it contains words or content that has attracted censorship.
G’day Marla
Mac
Thailand
*Thai time = GMT + 7
A friend of mine has email through one of the AT&T babies – sbc, I think. She never gets anything I send her with links in it, or when I send her ecards from other sites.
I suspect over zealousness concerning spam is what’s causing it, since most spam comes with links.
Tried to post the image:
http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/death-star-att_dollars-tm.jpg