[Infowarrior] - Is Yahoo Blocking People From Sending Any Email That Mentions OccupyWallSt.org?

[Richard Forno]

Is Yahoo Blocking People From Sending Any Email That Mentions OccupyWallSt.org?

from the what-if-you-just-wrote-occupywallst-is-a-dumb-idea dept

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110920/02444416023/is-yahoo-blocking-people-sending-any-email-that-mentions-occupywallstorg.shtml

Zacqary Adam Green points us to the rumor that Yahoo Mail, in its infinite wisdom, has decided that no one should be allowed to send any emails that merely mention the website http://OccupyWallSt.org. That's the website of the folks currently protesting in NY. Zacqary decided to test this out and produced a video showing Yahoo sending a bunch of lorem ipsum (gibberish) text without a problem -- and then refusing to send the same text once he added the URL at the bottom. We did some testing ourselves, and it appears that the message will go through if you just type OccupyWallSt.org. But if you do the full URL, with the http:... well, then you might just be a terrorist or something.

The message provided by Yahoo is that it refuses to send the email because "suspicious activity" was detected on the account and to "protect" the user, the message has not been sent. We also noted that once this happens, Yahoo starts asking you to input a captcha to send future emails. Because, um, linking to that one URL makes Yahoo claim you're a bot. 

Seriously, Yahoo? First off, it's troubling enough that Yahoo has apparently decided that merely mentioning a URL can have your messages blocked from being sent entirely. But almost as bad is claiming that it's to "protect" the user. Yahoo has been struggling lately to retain users. Blocking outbound messages for no good reason isn't likely to win any converts. No wonder ex-CEO Carol Bartz was fired over the phone. Perhaps Yahoo's Chairman of the Board was prevented from emailing her for his own safety...