Untitled Document
Advocacy Group, Internet Host Charge 'Political Motivation' Behind
Filtering of Email by Country's Largest Net Services Provider!
The BRAD BLOG has learned that cable company and Internet
service provider, Comcast Corporation has been automatically deleting email
sent to Comcast customers with the text "www.afterdowningstreet.org"
in the body of the email.
AfterDowningStreet.org ("ADS")
is the citizen's coalition advocacy group organized to raise awareness of the
leaked British memos and minutes referred to as the "Downing Street Documents".
Those documents, first reported by Michael Smith of the Sunday Times suggest
that the Bush Administration had determined to topple Saddam Hussein by military
means and planned to "fix" the facts and intelligence around the policy"
at least eight months prior to receiving authorization of the U.S. Congress
to wage war in Iraq. At the same time, George W. Bush and administration officials
were routinely telling both Congress and the American people that no tactical
decisions had yet been made regarding regime change in Iraq.
(DISCLOSURE: The BRAD BLOG and an
advocacy group co-founded by us, VelvetRevolution.us
are members of the ADS coalition.)
The discovery that email was being secretly filtered was made after an investigation
conducted by ADS co-founder, David Swanson who reported that many coalition
members did not seem to be receiving email alerts and others messages being
sent by the group.
"Over the past week we have been having problems reaching our members,"
Swanson said. "Yesterday we had a conference call scheduled that we'd announced
by email and two thirds of the people didn't even know about it."
Eventually Swanson was able to determine that it was only those members of
the group who receive email via the cable monolith's Comcast.net domain who
were not receiving such notices.
According to a study
released in January of this year by TNS Telecoms, Comcast Corporation is the
nation's largest single provider of both Cable/Satellite and Internet related
services in the country.
The BRAD BLOG has been able to independently
confirm that email sent to two different Comcast customers with the text "www.afterdowningstreet.org"
in the body of the mail, is not currently reaching those customers as expected.
Though messages with only "afterdowningstreet.org" are, in fact, able
to get through to those same customers without a problem.
In a statement released by People-Link.org, the Internet host for the AfterDowningStreet.org
domain, the directors of the "progressive" firm charge that the filtering
is politically motivated and both they and Swanson have requested people contact
Comcast to complain. (Contact information at the bottom of this article.)...
While it is not uncommon for Internet Service Providers, or ISP's, to filter
out messages sent to their users by domains which are known to send large amounts
of unrequested junkmail, or "spam", Comcast acknowledged to Swanson
that AfterDowningStreet.org was not on their list of domains alleged to have
sent such email.
Swanson spoke with two different employees in the Comcast Email Abuse department,
both of whom acknowleged to him that "www.afterdowningstreet.org"
seems to have ended up in the Comcast email filter. He was able to receive no
explanation from Comcast as to why or how that could have occurred.
When The BRAD BLOG attempted to get
a statement on the matter from the Comcast Abuse Department Manager, Jim Janco,
-- whom Swanson had previously dealt with in the matter -- we were told that
"company policy" dictated he "can't engage with the press in
any manner," but that he would ask the Comcast PR Department to get back
to us.
We received a call shortly afterwards from Jeanne Russo, corporate spokesperson
from the Comcast Online Division, who told us she was not aware of the problem,
but would get back to us after she was able to look into it. That was several
hours ago. As of this time, we have not yet heard back from her.
In a series of emails, however, shared with The
BRAD BLOG between Swanson and another employee from the Comcast Abuse Department,
the employee confirms the existence of the problem.
Swanson had sent emails to two different email addresses of the employee, one
of which was a comcast.net address, the other at a different service provider.
Until Swanson removed the "www.afterdowningstreet.org" from the body
of the mail he was sending as a test to the employee, his email was not received
by the Comcast employee at their Comcast.net address. The test email messages
were received without a problem at the two Comcast customers alternate non-Comcast
addresses.
Swanson had previously used "www.afterdowningstreet.org" as part
of his automatic email signature.
Another ADS coalition member, Tim Carpenter, explained how the problem began
and that he was personally unable to receive any information on the problem
from Comcast.
"I called Comcast and they never confirmed for me that there was a problem
with my email," Carpenter told us, "but starting Thursday, about two
hours after the bombings [in London], my email started disappearing. It became
clearer and clearer as the week when on that something was going on."
Swanson says that he was told by Comcast's Janco earlier this afternoon that
Janco had identified the problem and that Comcast would be attempting to correct
it over the next several hours. However, several other Comcast users have since
confirmed that they have still be unable to receive test messages sent by both
Swanson and The BRAD BLOG as of this
hour.
Swanson says he was told that "there were spam complaints and that content
filters automatically blocked the content of our URL, but that [Comcast] looked
into it and know that we don't spam."
When he asked why Comcast hadn't looked into the matter before adding ADS to
their spam filter, Swanson says he was told "Because it's automatic."
When he asked why ADS was not informed about the matter when it occured, the
answer was the same, "Because it's automatic," said Swanson.
Alfredo Lopez, a director of People-Link.org, the Internet Service Provider
which hosts the AfterDowningStreet.org domain and website, was able to confirm
that Swanson's email left the People-Link mail servers correctly but did not
reach their Comcast destinations.
"We do know that all of the email about which [Swanson's] talking was
mailed out from the server, and we do know that people on Comcast were not receiving
it. That much we know," said Lopez.
He said that People-Link, who identify themselves as "part of the progressive
Internet movement" received no notice from Comcast about the apparent filtering.
"That is typical of a very serious spam block," Lopez said today,
"because they don't want to tip off the spammer that they've been blocked."
A statement given to The BRAD BLOG by
People-Link's directors suggests that there is a political motivation behind
this matter. Their statement charges that Comcast is blocking "constitutionally
protected expression and the fundamental right to organize and act politically
on issues of concern."
Their statement goes on to say that:
Most spam blocking measures focus on the email address or the IP address
of the suspected spammer. While there are anti-spam measures directed at the
body of the email, these usually target attachments that could contain virus
programs.
Targeting the inclusion of a website url can only have one outcome: that
communications about that website and the issue it is presenting will be blocked
from large numbers of people and that the communications from that site's administrators
and the campaign's organizers will not reach their full constituency.
Whether comcast's intention or not, this is effectively political and unconstitutional.
The complete statement of People-Link's directors follows...
Statement from the Directors of May First/People Link
The Internet provider Comcast has repotedly admitted blocking email to
its users that contains the www.afterdowningstreet.org in the email body.
This goes far beyond the normal anti-spam measures taken by major providers
and represents an effective blocking of constitutionally protected expression
and the fundamental right to organize and act politically on issues of concern.
Most spam blocking measures focus on the email address or the IP address
of the suspected spammer. While there are anti-spam measures directed at the
body of the email, these usually target attachments that could contain virus
programs.
Targeting the inclusion of a website url can only have one outcome: that
communications about that website and the issue it is presenting will be blocked
from large numbers of people and that the communications from that site's administrators
and the campaign's organizers will not reach their full constituency.
Whether Comcast's intention or not, this is effectively political and unconstitutional.
It keeps people from getting valuable information about a campaign that
is, in the opinion of many, critical to the future of this country's political
system.
It disrupts the organizing of this campaign and cripples the campaign's
ability to use its most effective communications tool: the Internet.
It damages people's confidence in this campaign since many people who write
the campaign can't receive the response they expect and that the campaign has
sent.
Perhaps the worst part of this development is that Comcast has been reportedly
doing this without the knowledge of the managers of this website or anyone affiliated
with this campaign. In fact, no Comcast customer has received any indication
that email to him or her containing this url was blocked.
Many of us in the progressive Internet movement have long been warning
about the intrusive, arrogant, disruptive, inconsiderate and effectively reactionary
"access blocking" measures being taken by large Internet service providers.
They take many forms and we have argued that, in the end, they lead to the same
future: providers blocking access because of its content.
That future, apparently, has arrived and it is essential that everyone
interested in free speech and a free Internet call or email Comcast to let it
know how we feel and to warn it not to do this again.
...COMCAST CONTACT INFO...
- Comcast, Executive Offices: 215-665-1700
- Comcast, Abused Department: 856-317-7272 Ext 1 (and leave a message)
- To cancel Comcast Internet Service, call 800-COMCAST or 888-405-9200, press
1 for English, 4 to drop Comcast, and 2 to choose specifcy Internet service
(as opposed to cable).
- To contact Comcast and its Officers via Email, click
here.
UPDATE: Just in via Email from David Swanson:
The manager of Comcast's abuse, Jim Janco department now claims that they
have a contract with Bright Mail (part of Symantec)and that Bright Mail controls
the filter and refuses to lift the blog (claiming to have received 46,000 spam
messages with the ADS url in them; but refusing to show us a single such message).
Bright Mail also serves OTHER large ISPs, not just Comcast. According to this
same person, we can complain to Bright Mail at investigation@review.symantec.com
or comabsfeedback@feedback-15.brightmail.com
More Symantec contacts available
here.