Text Message | Gadgets & Technology

T-Mobile Gets Sued For Censoring Text Messages

t mobile vairy text 11 300x300 T Mobile Gets Sued For Censoring Text Messages Reefer madness! T-Mobile is being sued for preventing its customers from receiving text updates from a California medical marijuana dispensary. In a court filing on Wednesday, the wireless carrier maintained that it may pick and choose which text messages to deliver on its network.

EZ Texting, the New York-based texting service behind the lawsuit, offers a ‘short code’ service that allows clients to send mass text message advertisements to mobile phone users who opt-in. For example, a pizzeria that sends special offers to any customer who texts “PIZZA” to a 29292. According toe EZ Texting, texts sent to T-Mobile users from its client WeedMaps, an opt-in service that points users to their nearest legal medical marijuana dispensary, were blocked by the wireless carrier and has filed suit on WeedMaps behalf.

Citing the right to pre-approve any marketing campaigns conducted on its network, T-Mobile says EZ Texting neglected to submit WeedMaps for approval, and therefore, the carrier terminated the program. T-Mobile, which accounts for 15 percent of the nation’s wireless subscribers, says such approval is necessary to protect against shady or offensive marketing campaigns. However, EZ Texting alleges that even after it had stopped providing service to WeedMaps, T-Mobile pulled the plug anyway. According to the suit, EZ Texting also claims that if a judge does not promptly order T-Mobile to transmit its texts, the company will go out of business.

The Federal Communications Commission prohibits telephone providers from blocking calls placed on their networks, yet such laws don’t apply to text messages. While this the first federal case testing whether a wireless provider may block texts it finds objectionable, it’s certainly not the first time a similar flap has made headlines. In 2007, Verizon caught flack for blocking political messages from a pro-choice group, and earlier this year, Sprint blocked Catholic Relief Services’ attempt to raise money for the the Haitian earthquake relief efforts.

Receive Tweets Without Signing Up For A Twitter Account

Still have yet to jump on the Twitter bandwagon? Stay tuned in with Fast Follow, a new service that sends Tweets to your phone as SMS text messages, no Twitter account required. This is a great way to stay in the loop with breaking news but without the ‘pressure’ or hassle of having to update a Twitter account. To use Fast Follow, simply text the username you’d like to follow to 40404. For example, if you want to get Tweets from Gloss (@gloss), just text ‘follow Gloss’ to 40404, no @ symbol necessary. Before Fast Follow, if you wanted to read someone’s Tweets but didn’t have a Twitter account, the only option was to visit their Twitter user page directly and continually refresh it, which is a pain. It may seem silly but Twitter has proven to be a quick (usually reliable) source for breaking news — Michael Jackson’s death and the devastating earthquake in Haiti are just a few of the news stories that I, myself have learned about via tweets. Fast Follow is especially useful for staying informed since tweets are sent directly to your phone. Even if you already have a Twitter account, you can still have SMS alerts conveniently sent to your phone. From your computer, simply click on the phone icon that appears in the hovercard right below a user’s name or send ‘on [username]’ or ‘off [username]’ to 40404 and tweets will be sent as text messages in real time. A few other quick and easy Twitter SMS text message commands: Note: Always send to 40404 and do not add the @ symbol unless specified. @username + message Reply: shows your Tweet as a reply directed at another person Example: @gloss I just entered your big baby gift basket giveaway! D username + message Direct Message: sends a person a private message Example: d perezhilton I have a juicy scoop, wanna hear? RT username Retweet: sends another user’s latest Tweet to your followers. Example: RT Gloss SET LOCATION placename Updates the location field in your profile. Example: set location Los Angeles WHOIS username Retrieves the profile information for any public user on Twitter Example: whois gloss GET username Retrieves the latest Twitter update posted by the user Example: get gloss FAV username Marks that user’s last Tweet as one of your favorites Example: fav crystal (Twitter Tip: reply to any update with FAV to mark it as a favorite if you’re receiving it in real time) STATS Sends you an update of your number of followers, how many people you follow and your bio information STOP or QUIT Turns ALL phone notifications off FOLLOW username Allows you to start following a specific user, as well as receive SMS notifications Example: FOLLOW gloss LEAVE username Allows you to stop receiving SMS notifications for a specific user Example: LEAVE perezhilton By the way, you can follow us at @gloss and @geekgloss! (Shameless Self-Promotion)