Yahoo: Censorship under the cover of a “filter glitch”

I created a funny caption for a cat photo on the popular website icanhazcheezburger.com this afternoon.  I thought it was funny enough to share, and was tired of my comic genius going unnoticed.  I have a sparse following on Twitter (@angelablair58) and not many Facebook friends.  Posting the LOLs on these venues wasn’t getting them any votes.

I tried to send a link to my newly captioned kitty (http://cheezburger.com/angelab41/lolz/View/5266065408) by clicking the “select all” box in my contacts in Yahoo mail, then clicking “compose email to selected contacts”.  So far, so good.  I typed a brief message, inserted the hyperlink, clicked send, and got the message showing to the left.

Yahoo! answers (as of yesterday) shows that the question of why this is happening to users had 188 queries on the same problems.  Yahoo is apparently “aware” of the problem (which has been occurring periodically since at least 2007) and “working on it.”  Yahoo calls it a “Glitch” in their spam filter.

How oddly coincidental that the “glitch” is happening again during the Wall Street protests.  Has Yahoo! cranked up the dial on their censorship meters?  Suddenly no user is allowed to send any email, regardless of content, to everyone in their address book.

What incenses me most about this move, is not that I was blocked from distributing my funny cat photo.  It’s that not only was my outgoing email blocked, my ability to send emails was completely disabled.  I am now a threat to Yahoo!, or the Internet, or free society, as someone defines it.

What gives THEM the right, who are THEY, and how do I get that away from THEM?    The Yahoo! email Terms of Service Agreement states:  By using the Services, you consent to allow Yahoo!’s automated systems to scan and analyze all incoming and outgoing communications content sent and received from your account (such as Mail and Messenger content including instant messages and SMS messages) including those stored in your account to, without limitation, provide personally relevant product features and content, to match and serve targeted advertising and for spam and malware detection and abuse protection. Unless expressly stated otherwise, you will not be allowed to opt out of this feature.

Nothing in TOSA states that Yahoo! will (or that the user grants them rights to) block or shut down your account) if you send content with which they disagree.

After 12 years, I think it’s time to go over to Googarola…..