FC: Did Yahoo pull the plug on an Oakland peace activist group?

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

A few thoughts:

1. It is highly unlikely -- to the point of being an absurd allegation to 
make -- that Yahoo Groups is "censoring" a peace group because of its stand 
on international politics. Yahoo currently lists 899 groups in the "peace" 
category of Yahoo Groups; certainly no purge has taken place:
http://dir.groups.yahoo.com/dir/Cultures___Community/Issues_and_Causes/Peace_and_Nonviolence
2. It is far more likely that LMNOP has been accused of spamming, there's a 
misunderstanding, or something is going on that we don't know about.
3. I don't believe "censorship" is the best word to use here. I generally 
use the word to describe what governments do; this is at best a contractual 
dispute over a terms of service agreement.
4. It would be helpful for Yahoo to clarify.
5. I'd never trust a free email service with important mail. Better to get 
a shell account or POP account and pay for it; you'll be taken more 
seriously if you have a problem.

-Declan

---

Date: Sun, 8 Sep 2002 19:51:45 -0700
To: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>
From: [deleted]
Subject: Yahoo! censors LMNOP, an Oakland peace group (Fwd)

Declan,

Thought this might interest you.

P.S. Please don't include my name and/or email in any public posting.

>Date: Fri, 6 Sep 2002 11:30:59 -0700 (PDT)
>From:  "Steve Wagner" <bayiparalegal () yahoo com>
>Subject: Yahoo! censors LMNOP, an Oakland peace group
>To: nlg-interact () igc topica com
>
>Yahoo! censors LMNOP, an Oakland peace group
>
>My wife & I have been active in Lake Merritt Neighbors Organized for 
Peace, an Oakland antiwar group, since it started during the Gulf War in 
1991. (For a history of LMNOP & more information about the group see 
<http://www.webwm.com/LMNOP>).
>
>Three years ago we got an email address for the group, lmno4p () yahoo com 
This seemed like a good way to stay in touch with other groups & people. We 
also used it to notify people of upcoming events, & other activities.
>
>On August 8th, 2002, however, we found that we were no longer able to 
access our email address at lmno4p () yahoo com Email sent to the address was 
returned as "Undeliverable because the account has been discontinued or 
disabled." We had been "deactivated," the Yahoo! computer told us, "because 
of a violation of the terms of service agreement."
>
>I downloaded the Yahoo! terms of service agreement & read it again: There 
was absolutely nothing I could find that we had done that would constitute 
a violation of the agreement.
>
>Emailed & snail-mailed inquiries to Yahoo! were simply ignored. Yahoo!'s 
attitude appeared to be in keeping with their terms of service agreement: 
They will provide you with an email address, but they will also block you 
from using it & delete everything you might have stored in it whenever they 
feel like it, for any reason or no reason at all, & there is nothing you 
can do about it. Ignoring our inquiries simply underscored these arrogant 
policies.
>
>My wife, Beth, telephoned Yahoo! at (408)349-3300 earlier this week, & 
again yesterday. Her conversations with four different people there were 
most revealing, even if we are still barred from getting into our account.
>
>Earlier in the week Beth spoke with Laurie. Laurie is a supervisor in the 
Yahoo! Customer Care unit. Laurie told Beth that Yahoo! did not have to 
tell her what the alleged terms of service violation was, nor would they. 
She also said that the decision to shut down an account is made by a human, 
not the computer, so someone had pulled the plug - but there was nothing we 
could do about it. Laurie also said that it is "their policy" not to give 
their last names.
>
>Yesterday Beth talked with three different people at Yahoo! The 1st was a 
woman in Customer Care who transferred her call to Public Relations. The 
guy in Public Relations (Brian) said that his department only deals with 
the media, so basically there was really no reason to talk with him at all. 
Brian wasn't sure why the Customer Care person had transferred her to him, 
& he transferred Beth to Pablo, a supervisor in Customer Care.
>
>Pablo assured Beth that lmno4p () yahoo com had not been shut-down for 
political reasons, but he also said that it is "their policy" not to say 
what the actual reason was - &, most important, he said that a decision to 
shut down an account is not made "unless a complaint has been made." This 
confirms our suspicion that the LMNOP account WAS shut down for political 
reasons - There was no violation of the "terms of agreement" by us, & 
Yahoo! refuses to say what the alleged violation was, because there was none.
>
>We don't think that Yahoo! pulled our plug because they think we're some 
sort of threat to civilization as we know it. We think Yahoo! overreacted 
to a complaint by someone who disagrees with our politics, especially our 
public support for peace & justice in Palestine. Yahoo! figured that we are 
simply an obscure local group in Oakland, so they could treat us anyway 
they wanted to. Now that we are demanding answers & questioning their 
draconian "terms of service agreement" Yahoo! is stubbornly sticking to 
"their policies" - i.e., once they've shut you down there is no recourse, & 
they will not reinstate your account, nor even let you rescue any 
information that was stored there.
>
>We had over 200 names on our email list stored in the lmno4p () yahoo com 
account, & we had messages that we had not yet answered before Yahoo! 
pulled our plug. We have learned the hard way to never store anything in a 
Yahoo! account that you are not ready to have some misguided bureaucrat or 
political zealot delete.
>
>I know these are troubled times, & the problems of one small peace group 
in Oakland are miniscule compared to what is going on in the rest of the 
world. But it bothers me to think that a company like Yahoo! can sabotage 
our work in such a heavy-handed way with no recourse whatsoever.
>
>I tell you all this for three reasons: 1). To warn you to be careful when 
you deal with Yahoo!; 2). To ask if anyone has any ideas how we might bring 
Yahoo! to account for their reckless political sabotage; & 3). To see if 
anyone else has had similar experiences with Yahoo! or any of the other 
email service providers.
>
>- Steve Wagner, Lake Merritt Neighbors Organized
>for Peace, (510) 763-8712.  http://www.webwm.com/LMNOP 




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