Bradblog reports on Comcast purging e-mails from afterdowningstreet

[rumpel]

After this mornings frantic post by lala_rawraw reporting of possible hacking, I hope rawstory was not also a victim of this.


http://www.bradblog.com/

[Mojambo]

1. So this is how our corporate masters will attack the internet. n/t

[Tigress DEM]

19. Homeland Security means.. the repukes want to be secure from scandal...

Since they won't restrain themselves from scandelous acts, they restrict people who feel obliged to reveal the TRUTH.

Also, watch your own back. It seems the employers or somebody is picking out individuals and monitoring posts on DU and certain kinds of posts WILL result in termination of employment.

There was a post last night from a DUer who lost his job because of posts on DU that someone percieved to be a " :nuke: " threat.

Don't talk about :nuke: ing anyone or any place or in any way making statements that if uttered face to face could be construed as a threat to the person you are facing. Even if it is a joke, I think certain words are being scanned, maybe even webwide.

I lost my job after a few emails ... ok, LOTS of emails... but always on my own time and I think from my own (mail2web) account and not from my work account, although I did send some things on my lunch time etc...

I don't know if it was related or not, but they were mum about the reason for letting me go and there was never any mention of work performance issues. I know I could have had better numbers, but I never got a formal review. As a contractor, that's a mute point... disposable workers.

[hvn_nbr_2]

2. Holy crap!

If that's really true, well, I don't even know what to say, but since no one else is responding to this thread, I want to kick it.

[MelissaB]

3. COMCAST KILLS EMAIL FROM 'AFTERDOWNINGSTREET' COALITION!

COMCAST KILLS EMAIL FROM 'AFTERDOWNINGSTREET' COALITION!
Advocacy Group, Internet Host Charge 'Political Motivation' Behind Filtering of Email by Country's Largest Net Services Provider!

*** BRAD BLOG EXCLUSIVE ***


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 "http://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.

More at the link above...


WTF??

[Robbie Michaels]

5. Can They Legally Do This?

That is so screwed up!

[Lone_Star_Dem]

8. Their claim is that it's the fault of Bright Mail, who is in charge of

filtering out spam. :eyes:

They all love to pass the buck, don't they?

[Robbie Michaels]

20. Sure seems like it

BTW, the picture in your sig made me nearly fall out of my chair laughing!

[GoneOffShore]

13. Maybe they responded to complaints

I just sent messages to myself via my comcast, .mac, hotmail, yahoo and another account with just the link www.afterdowningstreet.org in the body and the subject line Downing Street. All the messages got through. Took awhile, but they got there.

[smiley_glad_hands]

14. They could be black listing their servers. eom

[I Have A Dream]

15. Yeah, I was able to get E-mail through myself also.

However, just because they "fixed" the problem doesn't mean that it wasn't a deliberate attempt to interfere with our right to information unimpeded by their censorship in reference to a site that they didn't want us to see. There's a good chance that it was only changed because they were caught.

Wonder what else they're blocking from us?? :shrug:

[MelissaB]

4. Please get this on the "greatest"

I just can't believe what I'm reading.

[BamaBecky]

6. Boycott! Dump Comcast now!... if this is FACT!...n/t

[habitual]

7. criminals

may they die by the sword since they live by it.

[bejammin075]

9. I have Comcast services. I will threaten cancellation

if they don't get their shit together. At the very least, I could switch to DSL for internet services. I'll buy a new fucking modem if I have to. Although I'd have to be pushed pretty hard to get rid of cable TV, I might use that as my "nuclear option".

Anyhow,

Haven't waded through the whole Bradblog article, but this looks like Brad hit one straight out of the park with the frayed husk of the baseball shell lying in a smoking pile somewhere in the outfield.

[FreedomAngel82]

10. This is just awful

We have comcast and I like their high speed internet. I don't use their webmail services though. I'm with another web-based Email group. Try calling up a lawyer and seeing if you have a case. They're invading privacy of customers.

[jasmeel]

11. I thought it was weird that I would get emails that were just

1 line or would say "Afterdowningstreet" and nothing else. I wouldn't have thought of hacking!

Scary. I wonder what I've been missing!

[bejammin075]

12. Suggestion! Comcast repays them with free TV ads!

How about when we call Comcast to bitch them out, we urge them to repay AfterDowningStreet with FREE ADVERTISING ON TV.

A.D.S. was a website serving a rapidly growing political movement, and by Comcast's blunder, the website's growth was stunted, and at the worst possible of times, as shit is hitting fans everywhere with the related story of Rovegate. Since Comcast is a huge media company, how about Comcast give A.D.S. some free TV ads to reach people, so that the stunted growth may be corrected.

[I Have A Dream]

16. I sent the following message to Comcast.

It has just come to my attention that there was an incident where E-mail that contained the URL www.afterdowningstreet.org was automatically being deleted from your customers' E-mail accounts.

I'd like to register a complaint as loudly as I can that I am appalled that this occurred. If I knew for sure that this was politically motivated, I would cancel my Internet service with your company.

I think that you have to have someone who is responsible for protecting what is determined to be spam so that things like this never happen again. If it was deliberate, it is censorship on your customers, and heads should roll.

I hope that this issue is taken seriously and that it doesn't happen again.

[cyberpj]

17. Another suggestion - add the link to every email you send now. nt.

[MissB]

18. There is another thread on the first page of GD talking about this.

I noted that I have Comcast email and was able to send myself an email through another service. It even works both ways.

From the last part of that thread, it was noted that the problem was fixed.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4113089&mesg_id=4113787