T-Mobile Claims It Didn’t Weed Out Texts For Marijuana Content

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Graphic: Reality Catcher

​T-Mobile claimed on Tuesday that it did not block medical marijuana text message alerts because of the content of the text. Instead, its decision to cease delivery of text came because EZ Texting didn’t follow “best practices” guidelines, company officials would have us believe.

T-Mobile is being sued in a federal court by EZ Texting, whose clients include WeedMaps.com, for allegedly blocking text alerts to customers seeking the locations of distributors of medical marijuana.
“Though T-Mobile doesn’t typically comment on pending litigation, we believe it is important to clear up some of the confusion generated by EZ Texting’s allegations,” T-Mobile said in a statement, reports Cecelia Kang at The Washington Post.
The firm claimed it requires content providers like EZ Texting to follow the Mobile Marketing Association’s U.S. Consumer Best Practices Guidelines for Cross-Carrier Mobile Content Programs, as well as other rules applicable to the mobile content business.

“When T-Mobile discovered that EZ Texting had not followed this process for WeedMaps — the text messaging service at issue in the lawsuit — we turned off the short code that EZ Texting was using for these services,” T-Mobile said.
“The content of the WeedMaps service simply had nothing to do with T-Mobile’s decision,” the company claimed.

Photo: EZ Texting
Shane Neman, EZ Texting: “None of the other carriers are blocking us”

​T-Mobile began blocking texts after it discovered that WeedMaps, a company that provides information about medical marijuana dispensaries in California, was using the service, according to EZ Texting.
“None of the other carriers are blocking us,” said Shane Neman, CEO of EZ Texting. “EZ Texting is being irreparably damaged in its business because of the blocking by T-Mobile.”
“EZ Texting has a rigorous screening process to ensure that the businesses and non-profits that use EZ Texting to send text messages are doing so in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations,” Neman said.
EZ Texting said it was informed by aggregator OpenMarket that T-Mobile had found the site to be “objectionable,” and had blocked it.
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