BRAD BLOG: COMCAST KILLS EMAIL FROM 'AFTERDOWNINGSTREET' COALITION!

[BradBlog]

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 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". Comcast is the nation's largest Internet Services provider....

Full Story and Statement from AfterDowningStreet's Web Host:
http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00001602.htm


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[LaurenG]

1. Boycott Comcast nt

[DearAbby]

2. Yep! Comcast is against free speech

Boycott!

[SkipNewarkDE]

3. Could this be an overzealous spam filter?

I mean, this does happen...

[lvx35]

42. On INSIDIOUS ABUSE of a spam filter!!!

It is possible that republican spammers sent out enough porno emails with that name in it that it is now blocked!

[fooj]

4. Holy crap!

:spank: Bad, bad Comcast! I hope it costs them a bundle!

peace.

[SouthernDem2004]

5. I believe if enough people report something as spam they cut off the

sender. If they were basicly spamming people then that is what happened.

[dbonds]

13. Does that mean I could get them to filter any email that has Jesus in it?

[SouthernDem2004]

17. Nope, does not work on a single word but on a site address. /nt

[msongs]

22. your local spam filter can block jesus and also christian - >

or any other words you choose. usually there is a place where you can block spam with ANY given word that appears in the "from", "to", or "subject" lines. Possibly anywhere in the body of the text for that matter.

it is useful to do this for a multitude of obnoxious emails.


Msongs
www.msongs.com/political-shirts.htm

[dbonds]

39. Thanks, I do know I could do it locally.

I was trying to make a sarcastic point about them filtering email body text for everyone whether they wanted it or not. Sorry, I guess I was too subtle.

[blitzburgh55]

6. I have Comcast

and sent myself an email with www.afterdowningstreet.org in the body , it hasn't shown up. WTF? Bastards.

[fooj]

11. No way! You are kidding me!

What a bunch of rat bastards. OMG! Are they everywhere?

peace.

[arwalden]

24. Same Here... I sent TWO Emails At The Same Time.

One *with* www.afterdowningstreet.org in the body, and one without.

The one WITHOUT arrived within seconds... the one WITH has been zapped into oblivion. Gone! Vanished.

[jarnocan]

52. I have comcast too

I get alot of mail from various org.s. Liberal-political stuff too. I will try to check and see if I have been getting all my mail.
Can we do anything else about this?

[arwalden]

65. Two More Test Messages Reveals That They Filter OUTBOUND Mail As Well...

... so they aren't simply "protecting" their subscribers from inbound-"spam". They are also preventing their subscribers from mentioning that URL to anyone else!!!

[MelissaB]

26. I tried, too.

NOT WORKING! I'm so pissed!

[cascadiance]

7. What's this world coming to!

[Megahurtz]

8. Bloody Hell!!

These people are getting bolder by the day!!!

I think we're all fucked!:hurts:

[KarenS]

9. Comcast here too,,,,,

I'll be conducting a test myself!!

[KarenS]

25. fascinating,,,,

I don't use Comcast as my main email address,,,,

but I did conduct a test,,,,

I can both send and receive email with afterdowningstreet.org in either the subject or the text.
However, if I make it www.afterdowningstreet.org ~ I don't receive or send,,,, it doesn't even appear in my sent mail folder,,,, poof,,,, computer black hole.

I am currently on hold with them now,,,,

[KarenS]

32. Ha!!!! I just got off the phone with the local Comcast customer

support,,,,,

The young man I was talking to ran some tests himself & was stunned,,,,, by then, I saw the update with the fact that it is Bright Mail by Symantec,,,,, he was furious & plans to log my complaint, file one for himself AND tell his friends to do the same!!!!

:rofl:

[Just Me]

49. No kidding!!!!!

:wow: Maybe a "complaint drive" is the most appropriate action to take in response to this abuse of power!!!!

[helderheid]

83. that is TERRIFIC!

[hiley]

90. KarenS

"he was furious & plans to log my complaint, file one for himself AND tell his friends to do the same!!!! "

whoa!
that is funny
furious, I love that!
hiley

[skids]

10. Not mine.

I don't let comcast touch my mail. The only mail that ever hits their servers is the mail that I have to send outbound through them to a few sites that idiotically will not accept mail directly from my cable modem.

Wish I could ditch them but there are no equivalent options.

[Eloriel]

12. Now you know what they'll do instead of "getting rid of" the internet

They'll just cripple our sites and censor us. Easy. Doesn't have to all be done overnight. A little at a time will get you there.

[wtmusic]

14. With all due respect

internet companies routinely block companies that appear to be sending spam. I've had this happen many, many times. I'd be very surprised if there was a political motivation behind it, otherwise that would block "downingstreetmemo.org" and a host of other domains.

[Tommymac]

15. Read the 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."

[wtmusic]

18. I did

and it is automatic. Again, I've had this happen many times. You can put your tinfoil hat on about it, but I'd guess the automatic filter of a company like Comcast filters hundreds of domains everyday, whether ads.org is on their "list" or not.

A good way to find out whether it's deliberate would be to ask them to "whitelist" it, so that it couldn't automatically be blocked. If they'll do that for you there's no conspiracy.

[SouthernDem2004]

20. There has been a recent update to the article. Check it again. /nt

[Griffy]

74. uh huh .. you've been drinking Evian.. backwards huh! LOL nt

[Occulus]

77. You'd be SURPRISED at a political motivation?

In THIS climate?

Ummmmmm.....kaaaaay.

[KamaAina]

16. Comcast subscribers: Complain to them about this frequently

and be sure to put www.afterdowningstreet.org in your complaint.

They'll end up blocking their own customer service email! Then you can complain to them about how they didn't answer your email that you sent over and over again. :evilgrin:

[wakeme2008]

19. Verizon is doing it too

I just sent two message to myself the one with

www.afterdowningstreet.org is Lost but the one with

www.a ft e rdo wning street. rg made it thru fast...

[SouthernDem2004]

21. Personally I am against spam from any source. /nt

[KarenS]

27. I don't like spam either,,,,

but this me sending me a message with www.afterdowningstreet.org in the text or the header,,,,

[dbonds]

30. But this isn't about spam.

It is about filtering any personal email that has the www.afterdowningstreet.org address in it as part of the body.

[wakeme2008]

34. Right and I sent it from myself to myself and

it was filtered so they can not say it was from a spam address.

[Jose Diablo]

23. I am on worldnet.att.net

And I cannot send through my ISP e-mail with www.downingstreet.org either.

I first sent the message with the downingstreet in it to myself .Nada, nothing came back.

Then I sent an identical message without the downingstreet in message body to myself and it went through.

Unless att was merged with comcast, it's not just comcast.

[lvx35]

40. att is merged with comcast

[halobeam]

28. I sent two to myself

first one I sent was www.afterdowningstreet.org in the body. That one never showed up. The second one I sent had just afterdowningstreet in the body and that showed up immediately.

[Oreegone]

29. Comcast blocks other stuff too

Comcast and AOL which is much worse block a lot of international sites. They get kicked back from AOL saying they can't deliver. My Mom has Comcast and she gets the email but can't open it.

I hear Clearwire wireless is good....

[jhain]

31. actually *did* work here

since comcast has been !@#$%^&*(!@#$%^&* not working for me off and on all week I was shocked that it actually showed.

I will stay tuned....

[MelissaB]

37. Did you try www.afterdowningstreet.org or www.downingstreet.org?

I can receive the second, but not the first.

[jhain]

80. it was the 'after' n/t

[Mnemosyne]

33. Same thing here at earthlink,

Nazi' bastards.

How long has this been going on?

[sepia_steel]

35. I don't know of Cox Cable is any better

but we switched nevertheless. Gotta have my broadband.

[AnotherMother4Peace]

36. Hotmail was filtering my John Kerry mail

I had to put it on the "this is not junk mail" list

[msongs]

84. hotmail does NOT filter my kerry stuff n/t

[AnotherMother4Peace]

87. That's good to hear. I found my Kerry correspondence in my junk mail.

That was earlier this year. I had to designate it as "not junk e-mail". I'm relieved to hear that it is not being systematically dumped.

[dbonds]

38. Guess that means no more Symantics products on my computer.

"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 [e-mail] or [e-mail]"

[globalvillage]

41. I think it's unintentional.

I wouldn't jump to conclusions. Look up the political donations of Symatec's leadership. They're mostly Dem.

I also don't think it was Comcast. Half of their customers are Dem. Do you really think they want to risk losing that much business? They're really not that stupid. Besides, Comcast is over 50% blue (barely).

My e-mail from afterdowningstreet was blocked, too. I really think it was a technical error.

We have more important work to do. This was a mistake.

[lvx35]

44. Not a simple mistake.

But may be not their fault. It is possible to sent out enough spam with a given keyword so spam filters block it by default...which would require republican spammers.

[dbonds]

56. But wouldn't that also require customers to be complaining.

And if it was that massive of a spam attack with ADS included, wouldn't one of us have received one. Only other option is it was very targetted to shrubbies, and was extreemly critical of him enough to get the recipients to complain.

[lvx35]

66. The company quickily fixed the problem, but this remains

a likely cause. Their automatic algorithm would pick up that word from the spams. We should pay attention to make sure other dem sites are not affected.

And where the hell is counterpunch.org?

[IowaGuy]

43. Is this a Comcast problem or are afterdowning street.org's

servers down to getting hacked earlier? Either way, somethin' nasty is afoot....

[lvx35]

45. Comcast

did you see the comments? ANYBODY who sends an email with that in the message has it instantly erased!

[lvx35]

48. VERY LIKELY RESULT OF REPUBLICAN SPAMMING

"The manager of Comcast's abuse 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"

[Media_Lies_Daily]

46. Stephen B. Burke, EVP, COO, & President of Comcast, is a Bush Ranger...

...and a big contributor to Bush:
---------------------------------
Comcast
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comcast>
---------------------------------
Stephen B. Burke
<http://www.whitehouseforsale.org/ContributorsAndPaybacks/pioneer_profile.cfm?pioneer_ID=1047>
---------------------------------
Bush's Rangers and Pioneers
<http://www.whitehouseforsale.org/ContributorsAndPaybacks/pioneer_search.cfm>

QUOTE:

Rangers are an elite class of fundraisers created for the 2004 election cycle who have bundled at least $200,000 for the Bush campaign. Pioneers are those who have pledged to gather $100,000. For the 2004 campaign, there are 221 Rangers and 327 Pioneers, so far.
---------------------------------

[Tommymac]

47. Afterdowningstreet should check their DNS records

with their ISP to make sure they are registered correctly...this could be broader than Comcast if other providers are having issues....

[lvx35]

50. afterdowningstreet.org NOT listed in any of over 100 spam databases

http://www.dnsstuff.com/tools/ip4r.ch?ip=afterdowningstreet.org

So why is it being treated like spam?

[dbonds]

53. It is not being filtered based on the address of the email.

They are filtering based on content in the body text of the email.

[lvx35]

58. delete

[MissB]

51. I have comcast

I sent myself an email from my gmail account. It went through with http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/ included. :shrug:

[lvx35]

54. they're talking about your comcast email account.

Yahoo doesn't use the same spam filter, nor does gmail.

[NightOwwl]

59. But it shouldn't make any difference who the sender is....

the filtering would happen on Comcast's end when the email is received.

[lvx35]

64. no, spam filtering is on comcast mailerservers. But its fixed, so whatever

[KarenS]

62. take out the http:// just start with the www. n/t

[lateo]

55. I just got my DSL line hooked up...buh by Comcast.

[NightOwwl]

57. I emailed my Comcast account from my Yahoo account...

with www.afterdowningstreet.org in the body of the email. I got it within seconds.

Could it be they have already fixed the error? Everyone who had email blocked before...try again...see if it's still being blocked.

[lvx35]

61. its fixed!

[Sapphire Blue]

67. No problems here

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org & www.afterdowningstreet.org sent & received.

Was having problems w/delayed email several months ago, though. Seemed to depend on the subject and/or senders/recipients... one of whom has a very well known first name.

[lvx35]

60. PROBLEM FIXED! WAY TO GO GUYS!

UPDATE (8:05 p.m. ET): AfterDowningStreet.org Co-Founder and Democrats.com President Bob Fertik contacted a number of people this evening in the corporate communications office of Symantec, and they fixed the problem. Fertik issued this statement:

"I want to thank the Symantec Corporation for responding in real time upon being notified that their Bright Mail product was the source of the problem."
___________________________

Another sign that these puke spammers who included it in their messages do NOT represent mainstream americans, who love our constitution and free speech!

[NightOwwl]

63. I still want to know why they blocked it in the first place. n/t

[lvx35]

68. my guess is freep spammers

All you have to do is include the word in enough spams, and the algorithm will automatically pick it up as a spam keyword. Easy as pie, just takes a lot of spamming.

[arwalden]

69. They Filter THAT But VIAGRA And Illegal OEM Software Ads...

still make it through by the DOZENS and DOZENS???

The dolts!

[madeline_con]

72. "They Filter THAT But"

Let's not forget "Meet singles in your area" !!

[wakeme2008]

70. Verizon is now working too

:)

[davidswanson]

71. How Comcast Censors Political Content

How Comcast Censors Political Content

Or Why My Comcast Horror Story Is Better Than Yours

By David Swanson



Most Comcast internet customers seem to have horror stories, but in my humble opinion this one is a doozie and may even suggest threats to freedom of speech more significant than the jailing of a court stenographer.



I'm working on a campaign headquartered at www.afterdowningstreet.org that seeks to draw attention to the Downing Street Minutes and to lobby Congress to open an investigation into whether the President has committed impeachable offenses. According to a recent Zogby poll, 42 percent of Americans favor impeachment proceedings if the President lied about the reasons for war, and according to a recent ABC News / Washington Post poll, 52 percent think he did. But this story is nowhere to be found in the corporate media. So, our website attracts a lot of traffic.



In addition, July 23rd is the three-year anniversary of the meeting on Downing Street that produced the now infamous minutes, and we are organizing events all over the country on that day. Or, we're trying to. But we noticed about a week ago that everyone working on this campaign was having strange Email problems. Some people would get Emails and some wouldn't, or they'd receive some but not others. Conference calls were worse than usual (I can't stand the things anyway) because half the people wouldn’t get the info and know where to call in. Organizing by internet is super easy, but when you have to follow up every Email with a phone call to see if someone got it, it becomes super frustrating. Volunteers have been complaining all over the country – especially now that we've figured out what the problem was and they know what to complain about.



We didn't know it, but for the past week, anyone using Comcast has been unable to receive any Email with "http://afterdowningstreet.org" in the body of the Email. That has included every Email from me, since that was in my signature at the bottom of every Email I sent. And it included any Email linking people to any information about the upcoming events.



From the flood this evening of Emails saying "Oh, so that's why I haven't heard anything from you guys lately," it seems clear that we would have significantly more events organized by now for the 23rd if not for this block by Comcast.



Disturbingly, Comcast did not notify us of this block. It took us a number of days to nail down Comcast as the cause of the problems, and then more days, working with Comcast's abuse department to identify exactly what was going on. We'd reached that point by Thursday, but Comcast was slow to fix the problem.



During the day on Friday we escalated our threats to flood Comcast's executives with phone calls and cancellations, and we gave them deadlines. Friday evening, Comcast passed the buck to Symantec. Comcast said that Symantec's Bright Mail filter was blocking the Emails, and that Symantec refused to lift the block, because they had supposedly received 46,000 complaints about Emails with our URL in them. Forty-six thousand! Of course, Symantec was working for Comcast, and Comcast could insist that they shape up, or drop them. But Comcast wasn't interested in doing that.



Could we see two or three, or even one, of those 46,000 complaints? No, and Comcast claimed that Symantec wouldn't share them with Comcast either.



By the time Comcast had passed the buck to the company that it was paying to filter its customers Emails, Brad Blog had posted an article about the situation and urged people to complain to Comcast.

http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00001602.htm



Brad quickly added Symantec phone numbers to the story on his website, and we called Symantec's communications department, which fixed the problem in a matter of minutes.



So, why does this matter?



Comcast has a near monopoly on high-speed internet service in much of this country, including much of the Washington, D.C., area. Many members of the media and many people involved in politics rely on it. Three days ago, I almost decided to put a satellite dish on my roof. There's no other way for me to get high-speed internet, unless I use Comcast.



Comcast effectively censors discussion of particular political topics, and impedes the ability of people to associate with each other, with absolutely no compulsion to explain itself. There is no due process. A phrase or web address is tried and convicted in absentia and without the knowledge of those involved.



Now, did Comcast do this because it opposes impeaching the President? I seriously doubt it. Apparently the folks at Symantec did this, and Comcast condoned it. But why?



Well, we have no evidence to suggest that these 46,000 complaints actually exist, but we can be fairly certain that if they do, they were generated by someone politically opposed to our agenda. There's simply no possible way that we've accidentally annoyed 46,000 random people with stray Emails and mistyped addresses. We've only been around for a month and a half, and we haven't spammed anyone. In fact, during the course of trying to resolve the problem, Comcast assured us that they knew we hadn't spammed anyone. And once we'd gotten Symantec's attention, they didn't hesitate to lift the block.



But it had taken serious pressure to find out what the problem was and who to ask for a remedy. We only solved this because we could threaten a flood of negative attention.



This state of affairs means that anyone who wants to stifle public and quasi-private discussion of a topic can quite easily do so by generating numerous spam complaints. The victims of the complaints will not be notified, made aware of the accusations against them, or provided an opportunity to defend themselves. And if the complaints prove bogus, there will be absolutely no penalty for having made them.



And this won't affect only small-time information sources. If the New York Times or CNN attempts to send people Email with a forbidden phrase, it won't reach Comcast customers or customers of any ISP using the same or similar filtering program.



And there is no public list posted anywhere of which phrases are not permitted. This is a Kafkan world. This is censorship as it affects a prisoner who sends out letters and does not know if they will reach the recipient or be destroyed.



What if I had tried to Email someone about a serious health emergency during the past week, but they had been using Comcast and I had been including the address of my website in my Email signature? Is this not a safety issue?



Above all, though, this is a First Amendment issue, as is well laid out in this excerpt of a statement released today by People-Link.org, the organization hosting the www.afterdowningstreet.org site:



"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."





P.S.:

Oh, if you haven't received our Emails about the events on July 23rd, go here:

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/526



____________________________



DAVID SWANSON is a co-founder of After Downing Street, a writer and activist, and the Washington Director of Democrats.com. He is a board member of Progressive Democrats of America, and serves on the Executive Council of the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild, TNG-CWA. He has worked as a newspaper reporter and as a communications director, with jobs including Press Secretary for Dennis Kucinich's 2004 presidential campaign, Media Coordinator for the International Labor Communications Association, and three years as Communications Coordinator for ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. Swanson obtained a Master's degree in philosophy from the University of Virginia in 1997.



LINK TO THIS ARTICLE

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/794

[NightOwwl]

75. I wonder if there is some kind of law against fraudulently...

reporting email as spam with the intention of getting it blocked. IMO, this is the same as taking mail out of someone's mailbox because you don't like the contents of the letter.

[Tommymac]

73. This is a well known tactic that has been used often in the past

Some persons did it to the Democratic Presidential campaign all fall last year. They would join John Kerry's website or forums, get a few emails from them, then report the site for spamming, and get it blacklisted with ISP's. This was always corrected, but it caused alot of work.

It is right up there with DOS attacks - and it should be covered by statutes that make internet attacks against the law. Not sure if it is, but it should be.

May want to talk to an internet/technical lawyer to see if there is a case...not against the ISP's or Symantec, but against those who complained falsely. Their complaints should be on the record.

[ConsAreLiars]

76. more likely, someone sent tons of spam with the ADS link in the message

or as a phony "from" address. Then the complaints would be ensue, and then the blocking. Sort of like a false flag or provocateur action intended to bring down repression on the "apparent" culprit.

[The Backlash Cometh]

78. Bad Comcast, BAD Comcast.

So what Repub owns it?

[lvx35]

81. this one.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4113089&mesg_id=4113606

[ohio_liberal]

79. Comcast is absolute crap

Don't assume that anyone from Comcast will tell the truth about any problems you may have with their service. That company has some serious technical issues that have never been addressed with the public.

[helderheid]

82. Comcast is unpatriotic for covering that up.

Anyone who loves their country would encourage the truth.

[progressivebydesign]

85. Just tested my Comcast mail... all four emails came thru fine.

I did variations, even having the afterdowningstreet in the subject line, and the actual link in the body of 3 of them, and another link in the fourth. All came thru just fine. The comcast mail can be really overzealous, as I've heard stuff from the Girl Scouts has been bounced back often, as well.

[globalvillage]

86. Not everything is a conspiracy.

Unless we have proof, or unless this happens repeatedly, this should be chalked up to a technical error and let go at that.
It wasn't just Comcast, as other posters have noted.
Why would Comcast risk alienating customers over this? Some of their board are Repubs and some are Dems. Same with their employees. Same as most other large companies. Comcast sits in the middle of 80% blue Philadelphia and has customers in most major metros. I don't think they are stupid enough to risk losing customers over an e-mail, even if they were so inclined.
We have more important things to do. Let it go.
:banghead:

[snot]

88. I agree with #73 AND

it is a federal offense to interfere with snail-mail; it should be a federal offense to interfere with e-mail as well.

[Rex]

89. Comcast works for the BFEE

so everything gets 'filtered' for political reasons on Comcast. AOL is as bad (I used to suffer for years of being dial-up and on AOL). People need to realize that the control of information in America sits soundly in the BFEEs corner.