August 4, 2005 — (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — Canadian Internet service and Web hosting provider Telus (telus.com) recently blocked access to a Web site (voices-for-change.com) set up by its employees’ union, a group it is currently battling in a labor dispute.
Telus, according to reports, says it undertook the action because the site contained confidential proprietary information, and photos on the site raised security and privacy concerns. The company did obtain a court order barring the site from publishing content intended to threaten employees. But this was done only after it had unilaterlly blocked off the site.
A study by the OpenNet Initiative found that Telus’s blocking of the union site also resulted in over 700 other sites being blocked. Telus blocked the IP address of the site, but that address appears to be shared by many other sites.
Analysts say Telus’s actions raise several legal issues about a service provider’s role in the decision to restrict or provide telecommunication services, and its ability to determine what content should or should not be taken down.
