T-Mobile Attacks Net Neutrality Unnecessarily: Twitter Problem Not Its Fault

T-Mobile has started blocking Twitter due to a technical problem at Twitter's end. When a customer asked T-Mobile what was up, however, a rep told him it could block Twitter because its Terms of Service over-rode any notions of Net Neutrality the customer might entertain. Oops!

As it was so enthusiastic to point out following a problem which wasn't its fault, T-Mobile's Terms of Service say it decides what parts of the internet that you may use. From the reponse to Robert Mertz's query:

"Twitter is not an authorized third-party service provider, and therefore you are not able to utilize service from this provide any longer. You indicate your feeling that this is a violation of the Net
Neutrality. T-Mobile would like to bring to your attention that the Terms and Conditions of servic , to which you agreed at activation, indicate "... some Services are not available on third-party networks or while roaming. We may impose credit, usage, or other limits to Service, cancel or suspend Service, or block certain types of calls, messages, or sessions ... at our discretion."

The argument T-Mobile's serviceperson offers is useful because it outlines the straightforward, no-messing-around strategy that bandwidth providers have for killing net neutrality: block the customer, then treat the backlash as a standard-issue legal grindhouse: terms of service, binding arbitration, and other legal minutiae will win the day. Its reps are already promulgating these canned arguments, even when they're irrelevant to the problem at hand.

And folks, it's not a moral issue. It's a "letting ISPs turn the internet into feudal Europe will screw everything that isn't an ISP"
issue.

Twitter blocked by T-Mobile [Valleywag]