Telstra a naughty word

If ever any evidence was required that Telstra is out of control and run by a group of paranoid, overbearing, autocratic bureaucrats suffering from illusions of grandeur and self importance this blogsite is the perfect example.

Telstra, who portray themselves as the pinnacle of openness and all-round nice guys have recently upgraded the filtering applied to the Bigblog website.

This became apparent when I tried to post the previous entry describing the actions of Telstra‚Äôs vitriolic and journalist abusing public relations official, Rod Bruem.

Titled Telstra: redefining the journalist/pr relationship, I was presented with an error when I tried to save the blog entry.

‚ÄúError: text contains the following naughty words [Telstra]”, flashed Telstra‚Äôs automatic filtering dictionary in bold red type.

While those people who are forced to endure Telstra‚Äôs painfully slow and overpriced broadband service, or the lengthy periods of time on hold while waiting to talk to someone at Bigblog would undoubtedly agree with the summary, the word Telstra is hardly one that would distress the broader community.

The new word filtering system currently only applies to the name of Bigblog posts and according to a technical support person at Bigpond, has been implemented ‚Äúas a precaution to prevent people from saying bad things about Telstra.‚Äù

For the time being a simple asterisk allows people with a desire to to get around the filtering.

Other words Telstra deems to be to naughty to be used in the headings of blog entries include: Bigpond, Japan, Japanese, fanny, poo, cock, lick, pussy, suck, ass, and boob. Mobilenet, Foxtel and Sensis have managed to slip through at this point of time, as have a number of racially derogatory terms.

But how long before Telstra, as self-appointed censor‚Äôs, prevent any mention of the corporation on this blog? How long before Bigpond bloggers start to see their blog entries being removed if they are critical of the organisation?

While some people will not be overly concerned about the new filtering system, others will more rightly see it as the thin edge of the wedge of over officious censorship penetrating the domain of Bigpond.

Even newspapers allow their columnists the freedom to criticise their own organisation if the situation warrants it.

Is it any wonder that Telstra continues to be held in such low esteem by even its own customers?

ENDS:
¬© John Le Fevre, 2007