AOL Denies Blocking Critics

AOL denied today that it blocked customer e-mail that includes links to a group opposing the company’s proposal to begin charging a voluntary fee for certain e-mail.

Thursday, the DearAOL.com Coalition issued a press release charging AOL with blocking all e-mails with links to the coalition.

“Over 150 people who signed a petition to AOL tried sending messages to their AOL-using friends and received a bounceback message informing them that their e-mail ‘failed permanently,'” the coalition stated.

AOL spokesman Nicholas Graham admitted the mail bounced but dismissed it as a software glitch that has been fixed.

“The mail is being delivered as usual,” Graham said. “We discovered a technical glitch on Thursday and it was fixed by Thursday evening.”

Graham said the glitch affected links to more than 50 sites with “absolutely no commonality.”

Full story: internetnews.com