AOL blocks e-mail tied to critic of firm
Company calls error an 'innocent mistake'

By Hiawatha Bray, Globe Staff  |  April 15, 2006

AOL Inc., already under fire for a plan to charge an extra fee to organizations
that send large amounts of e-mail, has now been accused of blocking e-mails that
mention the company's critics.

''The worst-case scenario is that this is absolutely intentional and they're
engaging in censorship of their critics," said Adam Green, civic communications
director of MoveOn.org Civic Action. AOL spokesman Nicholas Graham admitted that
the e-mail messages were blocked, but called it ''a very innocent mistake."

MoveOn.org is one of about 500 small businesses and nonprofit groups that
launched DearAOL.com in February. The coalition was formed to fight AOL's
''certified e-mail" plan, which would let legitimate senders of bulk e-mail pay
a fee to AOL, in exchange for guaranteed delivery of their messages. Those not
paying the fee would continue to use standard e-mail, where many messages are
incorrectly rejected by antispam filters, and never reach their intended
recipients.

The founders of DearAOL.com say their organizations can't afford to pay for
sending e-mail messages. They fear that AOL could actually lower the quality of
free e-mail, in an effort to force everybody to pay extra for reliable
service. They launched the DearAOL.com website, which contains a petition urging
AOL to abandon certified e-mail. MoveOn.org and other members of the coalition
have sent millions of e-mails urging people to visit the DearAOL.com site.

But on Wednesday, AOL's e-mail system began rejecting all incoming e-mails
containing any mention of DearAOL.com. Hundreds of coalition members reported
receiving ''bounceback" messages informing them that their e-mails to AOL
customers were not getting through.

Graham said that the problem was caused during routine software maintenance on
AOL's mail computers. The mail software was mistakenly programmed to reject mail
that mentioned about 60 Internet addresses, including DearAOL.com. AOL
technicians realized that something was wrong on Thursday, said Graham, because
of the high number of bounceback messages being issued by their computers. ''We
noticed that something regarding the software implementation had not gone quite
right," said Graham.

Green conceded that the mail blockage might have been an innocent blunder. But
he said the incident illustrates how traditional free e-mail may become less
reliable if companies like AOL focus on delivering better service for customers
who pay extra to send mail. ''The little guy is the one that's going to suffer
under AOL's system," said Green. Graham said technical problems can arise with
any type of computer network.

Hiawatha Bray can be reached at bray@globe.com.