T-Mobile Claims Right to Censor Text Messages

T-Mobile told a federal judge Wednesday it may pick and choose which text messages to deliver on its network in a case weighing whether wireless carriers have the same "must carry" obligations as wire-line telephone providers. The Bellevue, Washington-based wireless service is being sued by a texting service claiming T-Mobile stopped servicing its "short code" clients after it signed up a California medical marijuana dispensary. EZ Texting offers a short code service, which works T-Mobile, the company wrote in a filing in New York federal court, "has discretion to require pre-approval for any short-code marketing campaigns run on its network, and to enforce its guidelines by terminating programs for which a content provider failed to obtain the necessary approval." It's the first federal case testing whether wireless providers may block text messages they don't like.