Yahoo blocks users from sending e-mails about the OccupyWallSt.org website with a message claiming
"suspicious activity"
Thinking about e-mailing your friends and neighbors about the protests against Wall Street happening right
now? If you have a Yahoo e-mail account, think again. ThinkProgress has reviewed claims that Yahoo is censoring e-mails relating
to the protest and found that after several attempts on multiple accounts, we too were prevented from sending messages about
the “Occupy Wall Street” demonstrations.
Over the weekend, thousands gathered for a “Tahrir Square”-style protest of Wall Street’s domination of American politics.
The protesters, organized online and by organizations like Adbusters, have called their effort “Occupy Wall Street”
and have set up the website: www.OccupyWallSt.org. However, several YouTube users posted videos of themselves trying to email a message inviting
their friends to visit the Occupy Wall St campaign website, only to be blocked repeatedly by Yahoo. View a video of ThinkProgress
making the attempt with the same blocked message experienced by others (click full screen for a better view of the text):
ThinkProgress tried other protest websites, like AmericansforProsperity.org and TeaPartyPatriots.org,
and both messages were sent smoothly. However, emails relating to the OccupyWallSt.org protest were blocked with the following
message (emphasis added):
Your message was not sent Suspicious activity has been detected on your account.
To protect your account and our users, your message has not been sent. If this error continues, please contact Yahoo! Customer
Care for further help. We apologize for the inconvenience.
ThinkProgress has sent a request for more information to Yahoo, and will post any reply once we have
received it with Yahoo’s explanation for its apparent censorship.
It’s not the first time Yahoo has been accused of political censorship. Yahoo officially partners with the repressive Chinese regime to provide the government with access to emails related to groups
viewed as dissidents. An explosive investigation by Der Spiegel found that Yahoo provided Chinese authorities with access to emails from journalists,
and the snooping resulted in the same journalists being sent to prison camps.
The Occupy Wall Street protests have continued, but if you own a Yahoo e-mail account, you might not
know about it.
