Verizon exec: No 'policing the Internet' for us

The telecommunications company said it had no interest in looking into how its customers use its broadband services in an attempt to filter pirated content.

Public affairs chief Tom Tauke made the comments at the Congressional Internet Caucus' State of the Net conference, being held in Washington, DC. The stance of Verizon seems to differ from that of other operators, who are actively throttling downloads.

It seems, however, to have become common practice to talk out both sides of the mouth, so to speak. While publicly ISPs such as Comcast have denied that they throttle connections, investigations later have uncovered that it indeed does treat certain kinds of Internet traffic differently.

Verizon may also be employing a hands-off approach in order to avoid any potential public backlash and possible legal ramifications. Tauke said deploying filters such as AT&T seems apt to implement could open up "a can of worms."

Even with the company's public stance on Internet filtering, the company has not always been so lassiez-faire. Last year it refused to send SMS text messages from the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL), although it quickly removed the block.

An internal review of company procedures following that incident is almost complete, and Tauke said it was changing how the company dealt with such issues. However, at the same time he said that the company would continue to act in the best interest of its customers when companies request to send bulk messages through the carrier.

Tauke cited a recent request by a company which solicited recipients to call a number which would have cost $29 per call. ""We have to exercise some judgment in terms of the kinds of entities that want to use the service," he was quoted by IP Democracy as saying.