

AT&T's removal of Eddie Vedder's anti-Bush sentiments from a webcast was not an isolated incident, according to a response issued by the company to Wired News.

The company's initial response was that the deletion was a mistake, and that it "does not edit or censor performances." However, after confronted with an email sent to Wired News claiming that AT&T had erased artists' political commentary from two previously-webcast shows, the company admitted that it had, in fact, excised political speech from "a handful" of its previous webcasts:

"It's not our intent to edit political comments in webcasts on attblueroom.com. Unfortunately, it has happened in the past in a handful of cases. We have taken steps to ensure that it won't happen again."

I don't doubt that AT&T has fired whoever who hit the mute button every time they heard criticism of the government, and it's highly likely that such editing will cease to occur.

Regardless, AT&T's assertion that in the absence of net neutrality regulation it will not filter information traveling through its network based on political content now rings a bit hollow.