As you know, in the Republican Corporatocracy, business rights trump your rights. Now if you criticize or blog against AT&T, they can terminate your service.
5.1 Suspension/Termination. Your Service may be suspended or terminated if your payment is past due and such condition continues un-remedied for thirty (30) days. In addition, AT&T may immediately terminate or suspend all or a portion of your Service, any Member ID, electronic mail address, IP address, Universal Resource Locator or domain name used by you, without notice, for conduct that AT&T believes (a) violates the Acceptable Use Policy; (b) constitutes a violation of any law, regulation or tariff (including, without limitation, copyright and intellectual property laws) or a violation of these TOS, or any applicable policies or guidelines, or (c) tends to damage the name or reputation of AT&T, or its parents, affiliates and subsidiaries. Termination or suspension by AT&T of Service also constitutes termination or suspension (as applicable) of your license to use any Software. AT&T may also terminate or suspend your Service if you provide false or inaccurate information that is required for the provision of Service or is necessary to allow AT&T to bill you for Service.
Got that? Don’t say anything about AT&T or its subsidiaries or parents of affiliates. You bet. They’ll cut your phone service off.
It is typical when AT&T formulates terms of service that they place all restrictions and obligations on the side of the consumer and none on the provider-themselves. Most of these amorphous laws require that the user must abide without knowing what they are. They happen to be written such that the provider can change the terms of a ex post facto and without the acknowledgement of the user.
But this ridiculous that you can pay for something but if you don’t like it then the company can stop your rights to free expression.
Years ago when they were renovating the Statue of Liberty it was surrounded in scaffolding. Comedian Ron Chock said "You can tell a Republican is in power, Lady Liberty is in a cage."
She still is.
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