# AOL refused to deliver emails critical of AOL

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aol-refused-to-deliver-emails-critical-of-aol/352630>\
**Category:** The BBQ Pit\
**Created:** [April 14, 2006, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aol-refused-to-deliver-emails-critical-of-aol/352630 "2006-04-14T05:44:31Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\
**Post date:** [April 14, 2006, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aol-refused-to-deliver-emails-critical-of-aol/352630/1 "2006-04-14T05:44:31Z")

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[

> [@The EFF](#):
>
> San Francisco - AOL is blocking delivery to AOL customers of all emails that include a link to [www.DearAOL.com](http://www.DearAOL.com)]([http://www.eff.org/news/archives/2006\_04.php#004556](http://www.eff.org/news/archives/2006_04.php#004556)). Today, over 100 people who signed a petition to AOL tried sending messages to their AOL-using friends, and received a bounce-back message informing them that their email “failed permanently.”

Of course, AOL swung into Full Ninja Stealth Ass-Covering Mode very quickly once word of this got out:

> [@](#):
>
> UPDATE After this press release was sent out Thursday afternoon, AOL stopped blocking email with links to [www.DearAOL.com](http://www.DearAOL.com). Officials at the company stated that problems of this nature generally take three to five working days to fix. However, this was fixed after 24 hours of undeliverability - and approximately twenty minutes after this press release was widely distributed. This incident only increases our worry about organizations who don’t have the ability to seek instant press attention. The next time AOL’s anti-spam filters fail for a small organization – or one without political muscle – will they move so quickly to fix them? Or will they push organizations to just sign up with Goodmail and pay to avoid the problem?

So, obviously, I must be a snob to point out this little slip on AOL’s part.

Before the morons move in and say that AOL doesn’t have to deliver any email it doesn’t like, let me state that AOL’s customers never agreed to this kind of self-serving filtering and have, in fact, _paid_ for those kinds of emails to get through. It’s part of the service AOL has contracted to provide them.

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**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\
**Post date:** [April 14, 2006, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aol-refused-to-deliver-emails-critical-of-aol/352630/2 "2006-04-14T06:03:54Z")

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People who give AOL money kind of deserve what they get.

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**Author:** ![Lochdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/edb3f5/32.png) [@Lochdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lochdale)\
**Post date:** [April 14, 2006, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aol-refused-to-deliver-emails-critical-of-aol/352630/3 "2006-04-14T21:42:07Z")

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Do they still have an hours limit on net usage at AOL?

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**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\
**Post date:** [April 15, 2006, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aol-refused-to-deliver-emails-critical-of-aol/352630/4 "2006-04-15T01:21:45Z")

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> [@Otto](#):
>
> People who give AOL money kind of deserve what they get.

I agree that AOL is crap, which is why I don’t subscribe, but I don’t think that it should be off the hook because ‘everyone knows’ it’s crap. Neither, I suspect, do you.

> [@Lochdale](#):
>
> Do they still have an hours limit on net usage at AOL?

If they do, it’s presumably covered in the contract. This bullshit I just pitted was not.