Can't Make This Up Series: AOL Censors Target DearAOL

03:00 PM Apr 15, 2006

Strange thing happened on Thursday. Reports started cropping up about emails to aol.com addresses bouncing ... if they contained the dearaol.com url.

AOL apparently put in a filter blocking messages about the coalition (of which DemocracyInAction is a member), which criticizes its pay-to-send arrangement with Goodmail.

Interesting tactic for a company attempting to rebut the concern that it might one day abuse for profit this new toll road around spam filters.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation quickly issued a press release:

Today, over 100 people who signed a petition to AOL tried sending messages to their AOL-using friends, and received a bounce-back message informing them that their email "failed permanently."

"The fact is, ISPs like AOL commonly make these kinds of arbitrary decisions – silently banning huge swathes of legitimate mail on the flimsiest of reasons – every day, and no one hears about it," said Danny O'Brien, Activism Coordinator of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). "AOL's planned CertifiedEmail system would let them profit from this power by offering to charge legitimate mailers to bypass these malfunctioning filters."

Shortly thereafter and with no fanfare from AOL headquarters, the filter was lifted. For the time being, you can forward a dearaol.com link to an AOL account.

Bay Area denizens may want to check out an Apr. 20 debate featuring O'Brien, a leading anti-Goodmail voice, squaring off against former EFF E.D. Esther Dyson, who recently editorialized in favor of Goodmail in the New York Times. The debate will be moderated by Silicon Valley pioneer and open source paladin Mitch Kapor.

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