Update on AOL Blocking of Website Address
Special Note: Without giving any exlanation, the AOL block on emails which included the name of our website was lifted on April 10th. Thank you very much to the many supporters who called and emailed AOL and their political and media representatives. You have made a difference. We leave the message below for those who want to know all that happened. Together, we are making a big difference in the world!
Dear friends,
Thank you for the widespread response we've gotten to AOL's blocking of emails which include mention of our website Want To Know .info (without the spaces) anywhere in the email message. I will again avoid making any mention here of the website without the spaces to avoid triggering a block for our subscribers who use AOL as their email service. On links to the website in this message, we've placed an automatic forwarder on one of our other websites, so that the link functions without using the Internet address of Want To Know.
Thanks to the much appreciated help of many of our subscribers, we have further refined what is happening at AOL. We've also received many reports of AOL censorship of other political websites, a few of which are listed towards the end of this message. I was mistaken in saying in a previous message that all emails mentioning our website and sent to AOL users are blocked. It appears that for some strange reason, those who use AOL as their email service are able to send emails using our website address. Yet all who do not use AOL are consistently blocked when they try to send an email to AOL users which include Want To Know .info anywhere in the message. Try it yourself to verify what we've found.
I contacted AOL by phone to find out what is going on, and unlike many who shared their stories of problems with contacting AOL, a very friendly, competent man named Anthony helped to process the problem. Anthony checked his database and could find no block of our website address there. He could come up with no explanation for our problem. He did not doubt that we were having the problem, however, and wrote up a problem ticket to send to his superiors. He said we should hear back from someone within 48 hours and gave a ticket number and reference number for me to call back should we not receive a response.
Shortly after the phone conversation with Anthony, I received an email from AOL providing our ticket number and describing how I could send further information on the issue. I wrote up and sent a detailed message asking how this blocking could have happened. To read this message, click here. I suggested that if this was not a politically motivated action, AOL should inform websites before blacklisting them in order to avoid accusations of censorship.
I do suspect censorship here on the part of AOL, particularly as the blocking started within days after we sent out one of our most politically sensitive emails, but it is also possible that a group of people outside of AOL organized a complaint campaign against us to which AOL responded. And there could be another explanation of which we are unaware. We will have to wait and see what AOL has to say.
In the meantime, thanks for the tremendous support and many emails of concern we have received. Thanks also to the many people who posted messages on their websites, called AOL, spread the news to their friends and colleagues, and contacted their political and media representatives. We very much welcome further support along these lines. Based on the experience of others who have been censored, if we get enough publicity, AOL will remove the block.
Below are a few examples of AOL censorship of other organization sent in by subscribers.
The highly respected Electronic Frontier Foundation describes censorship of www. Dear AOL. com
http://www.eff.org/news/archives/2006_04.php#004556
AOL censorship of website www. downsize dc .org
https://www.peerservice.org/aolexample1
AOL censors website of activist Alex Jones
https://www.peerservice.org/aolexample2
We received many other reports, but just wanted to give you a sample here. We've heard more than enough to encourage those who subscribe to AOL to consider switching to another provider. We realize this is not an easy thing to do, but you can make it easier by keeping your AOL address for a while (remember it's free) and adding an automatic forwarder to your new email address so that you don't lose any emails. For AOL users who want to see recent emails you have missed, click here. The banking cover-up email which may have triggered this AOL block is also listed there. And in order to continue to receive our emails, AOL users must unsubscribe their AOL address and then resubscribe a new address using this link.
Thanks again for the great response from all of you on this. Let's continue to keep the pressure on so that AOL will lift this block and be more responsible as a corporate citizen. Together, we are making a difference in the world and building a brighter future for us all.
With best wishes,
Fred Burks for PEERS and the Want To Know .info Team
Former language interpreter for Presidents Bush and Clinton
See our archive of revealing news articles at https://www.peerservice.org/medianewsarticles
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Update on AOL Blocking of Emails and Website Address
