AT&T Reserves the Right to Cancel Your Service… For Criticizing the Company

AT&T wants to turn off your broadband if you say something too mean about them. Just check out the draconian legalese in their ToS:

AT&T may immediately terminate or suspend all or a portion of your Service, any Member ID, electronic mail address, IP address, Universal Resource Locator or domain name used by you, without notice, for conduct that AT&T believes (a) violates the Acceptable Use Policy; (b) constitutes a violation of any law, regulation or tariff (including, without limitation, copyright and intellectual property laws) or a violation of these TOS, or any applicable policies or guidelines, or (c) tends to damage the name or reputation of AT&T, or its parents, affiliates and subsidiaries. (emphasis added)

Wow. So what qualifies? Blogging about an inept customer service agent? A nasty letter to the Better Business Bureau? Perhaps calling their CEO a doody-head? AT&T promised that they wouldn't actually enforce the clause, but that wasn't nearly enough. After heaps of extra criticism for remaining so vague, AT&T said they're in the process of revising the language to remove that threat. We'll see on that one.

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