Earthlink Kills Progressive Portal without a Word
... but We Rise from the Ashes

Including an Action Alert

 

Early in the morning on Nov. 15, 2001, Progressive Portal began a letter-writing campaign to several officials at the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) regarding Fannie Mae employee Wendell Johns, who at the time sat on the board of Pacifica Radio Network. Later that morning, Progressive Portal's functions began to shut down, until the Web site and my own e-mail and Internet access were gone. E-mail sent to us was returned, or simply disappeared in cyberspace.

After persistent inquiries, I discovered that our Web-hosting service, Earthlink, had shut us down, for reasons that remain mysterious. One Earthlink employee told that our file contained a note saying "someone called" to shut down our service. No further information was available.

For several days, in phone messages, e-mails, and faxes to Earthlink and its attorneys, we demanded an explanation, as did our attorneys at Public Citizen Litigation Group. There was no response. In violation of the spirit and letter of Earthlink's own policies, not to mention common courtesy, Earthlink has never explained its sudden "random act of censorship."

Of course, it's not that easy to get rid of us. Within two hours, we had the Wendell Johns campaign back online at a new home, and within a few days we had moved all of Progressive Portal to a great hosting service, TechForPeople.net (now known as Electric Embers). Johns has quit the Pacifica board, and our users have sent more than 1.75 million letters on a range of progressive issues.

Although we've returned stronger than ever, Earthlink's actions are an evil omen of things to come.

Because Earthlink is rapidly gobbling up service providers throughout the Internet, just as megacorporations are gobbling up broadcast and print media, Earthlink's behavior bodes ill for the future of progressive online activism. While we investigate what remedies may be available to us, our supporters have been asking how to make their feelings known to Earthlink management.

 Action Alert 

Tell Earthlink management what you think of their unexplained censorship of Progressive Portal. To send a letter, do one of the following:

  1. First try clicking here. This should produce a sample letter in your e-mail program, ready to send; but please rewrite the subject and body in your own words.
  2. If the above link does not work on your computer, copy and paste the addresses shown at the bottom of this page. (Please put them in the "BCC" (blind courtesy copy) field if your e-mail software allows, not the "To" or "Recipient" field.)

We suggest you put the addresses in the "BCC" (blind courtesy copy) field rather than the "To:" or "Recipient" field, if your e-mail program allows.

Need ideas for what to write? Take a look at Earthlink's Core Values and Beliefs and point out how their treatment of us compares with their statements:

Or, how about Earthlink's Internet Bill of Rights?

For more inspiration, here's what some of our supporters have said to us:

I'm an Earthlink user (about to upgrade to DSL and maybe domain hosting) and would be happy to write a letter of objection, as appropriate. -- D. R.-B.

I am particularly disturbed by this. You see, my internet provider, Mindspring, is a subsidiary of Earthlink. I've been pleased with their service since my Sirius acct. was transferred to them last spring. It was actually an improvement over Sirius, which had gone down the tubes since they were bought out by FirstWorld. If Steve launches a boycott of Earthlink over this, I will transfer my DSL and internet service to another company! -- M.L.

Perhaps we should let our friends who use Earthlink to boycott the service for its censorship. I will certainly never use it myself now that I know any correspondence may be dis-allowed. -- N.B.

As a longtime Mindspring/Earthlink subscriber I made my concerns known to them and that whether or not I remain a subscriber will depend on the outcome of this situation. I also told them Wendell Johns has put himself in the public domain by misusing public funds of which I am a contributor and that opinions expressed to him are a right of free speech and expression and are therefore not SPAM. I also told them this action is contrary to the work Working Assets ISP does and that their service is offered through Earthlink. Earthlink, "It's Your Internet." ... REALLY? -- S.F.

Keep me updated with your struggles with Earthlink. I have an account with them and I will cancel it immediately if your situation is not resolved. I will also make it a point to let my clients know that Earthlink is not a supporter of free speech. I am a web developer and I am asked about web hosts and ISP's on a regular basis. F*** Earthlink. --P.O.

Earthlink has to be held accountable for providing progressive access to the net. Afterall, they did "inherit" igc's accounts, et al. Shame on them for playing gatekeeper. -- S.R.

I am really mad that Earthlink did that to you! I have had trouble with them before and now I have decided to cancel my subscription with them. -- K.D.

When this is all settled, please let me know as I would enjoy giving Earthlink a piece of my mind. ... I trust you will find a host who does not pander to corporate interests. -- R.S.

I am shocked! Earthlink is owned by Scientologists who I had believed were believers in free speech and honesty. So much for this latest dose of hypocrisy! Maybe we all should do a letter campaign to Earthlink too! -- R.S.*

This is bad news, for sure. Let me know what I/we can do to fight this censorship. If that's Earthlink's concept of spam, then I think they're using their much-touted "no spam" promotion as an excuse for jumping on the curtailment-of-civil-liberties bandwagon. Who knows how many other e-mail providers will choose to follow suit, and to knuckle under to the government's efforts to invade privacy and civil liberties under the guise of fighting terrorism? -- M.R.

That's appalling. Is your site going to be permanently censored? I am forwarding your message to everyone I know who has an Earthlink account. -- J.L.

Please keep us informed about Earthlink. I have Mindspring... now under Earthlink... and will change if Earthlink does not change the policy and type of activities you describe. -- H.W.

As an Earthlink dial-up customer who's most of the way toward activating DSL service with Earthlink, I'm not so sure I want to deal with these folks. -- N.S.

Count me in . Those guys won't be referred to by me or anyone else in our family, cyber or otherwise. ... I will call and write them when I know where to. Thanks again for your tireless work for the common good. Your mother should be proud. -- D.T.

Hi, I was very disappointed to read that the ISP service I subscribe to, Earthlink, had cancelled your activist site! What repressive times we are living in when the free speech of American citizens is under attack. I thought that Earthlink was above this type of repression. I will cancel them if need be and advise numerous contacts that I encouraged to switch to Earthlink to change also. -- A.W.

I am extremely concerned at the way you were treated by Earthlink et al. ... It is so sad to see diverse speech being supressed. -- D.K.

I am personally outraged over EarthLink allowing itself to be bullied into closing access. -- J.G.

I was appalled to hear what had happened to you. ... I am an immigration attorney in Davis, CA -- and very much concerned about all of the many infringements of our rights going on these days -- keep the faith! -- A.B.

This is outrageous! ... What can I do? -- A.S.

I am shocked to learn Earthlink Networks shut you down. I thought they were more liberal than most. -- H.S.

Hopefully everything is kosher at Earthlink with Progressive Portal now. If not we will just take our business where else. -- A.W.

I am considering using Earthlink as my webpage host but am now concerned about its policies. What is the official explanation for removing Progressive Portal, and how will this policy affect websites? Earthlink should be asked to clarify its policy regarding websites and complaints about them: was Progressive Portal taken down because it violated a specific, stated policy? Or not? -- C.B.

When I learned of that action I felt ... disgusted enough to want to use this as an example of how the erosion of our rights are happening now, not in the possible future. -- B.D.

Shame on Earthlink! -- S.K.

To Earthlink Administration: I understand that you have interfered with a client, Progressive Portal, to the extent of not merely ending service, but also of depriving the person who runs Progressive Portal, Steve Freedkin, of e-mail he has been sent. I have looked at your rules, insofar as they are available ..., and see nothing there about how you give yourself the power to block people from their e-mail. It seems unlikely you are fumigating the e-mail to eliminate anthrax spores, so as an outside observer such as myself, it appears that Earthlink is betraying itself as an undependable, rule-breaking, and ultimately undesirable ISP. -- T.W.H.

Is Earthlink owned by ultra-conservative Republicans or what? Sounds like they have a massive takeover in mind. Just another bunch of clowns trying to take away our rights. GRRRRRRRRRRRRR! -- B.

How can they just shut down your website and not even tell you why? -- A.B.

I'm with Earthlink and maybe I can help -- write a letter, etc. I'd like to know the basis of the censorship issue -- maybe I'll dump 'em. -- M.M.

I am an Earthlink customer by virtue of the fact that they bought up my provider, Onemain, who took over Thegrid, my primary provider.So, there must be more like me and you could suggest that we change our service provider if Earthlink does not do the right thing. I'm not eager to change provider because of the nuisance.... I hope that it will not be necessary, but if it is, you may quote me to Earthlink and send a notice to your list to respond in kind. Who knows how many of us are out there? -- F.F.

I thought it was super-lame that you got kicked off the "freedom loving" Earthlink. So I made this poster. There's an explanation and some cool links at the article below. -- J.K.
http://la.indymedia.org/display.php3?article_id=12951

Steve, those of us with Earthlink e-mail should be especially concerned: please keep us posted and suggest someone to write to. This is not why I subscribe to Earthlink, and much as I would hate to move my e-mail to another provider, I will certainly have to consider it if your site is not back up. I'm sure other earthlink subscribers, many of whom have moved to earthlink because they had trusted its politics, would follow suit. -- C.B.

Your message sounds incredible for a citizen of the land of the free, brave, etc. -- S.F.*

Please let me know if the Earthlinked and us colonists should cancel now. -- B.D.

_______________

*Where the same set of initials appears more than once, the authors are different people who happen to have the same initials.

 

 

 

 

Top of Page  |  Home Page

 

Earthlink contact addresses:

 

Top of Page  |  Home Page