Astrology Blog: Pluto in Capricorn and Big Business Control

Capricorn is, among other things, the sign of big business. When Pluto goes into Saturn-ruled Capricorn early next year (although due to retrogradation it won’t be in Capricorn to stay until November 27, 2008), big businesses will try to exert ever-more control over our private lives and the boundaries of personal expression.

I wrote in a recent blog about how Pluto in Capricorn could “bring a heightened awareness of the fragility of our own privacy—along with government or corporate attempts to misuse private information.”

As businesses braid and twine their services ever more tightly into our lives, we are more vulnerable to manipulation and control. Another telling example and precursor to what we can, unfortunately, expect:

Verizon and AT&T both inserted a clause into their new service contracts stating that an individual's Internet services could be terminated if a customer badmouths Verizon, AT&T, or one of its “business partners” (which would include Yahoo, Verizon’s online partner). Both companies have since agreed to rescind this provision and replaced it in the service contract with a noble paean to free speech--a change which came about only after the matter was brought to light by the L.A. Times and received widespread negative publicity in the blogosphere.

A few days ago, the L.A. Times’ consumer reporter, David Lazarus, wrote in an article titled, “Free Speech Could Lead to Online Disconnect”:

If you're displeased with the way a company treats you, you're free to air your feelings in public, right? Not necessarily if you receive high-speed Internet access from AT&T Inc. or Verizon Communications Inc.

Buried deep within both companies' voluminous service contracts is language that says your Net access can be terminated for any behavior that AT&T or Verizon believes might harm its "name or reputation," or even the reputation of its business partners.

The language came to light the other day after AT&T sent notices to thousands of customers revising their service contracts as part of the company's merger last year with BellSouth....

...Before that, AT&T was caught in August censoring political comments made by Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder during a concert webcast. The company later said it had made a mistake.

AT&T and Verizon say they've never enforced the can't-criticize-us contract terms, which have been in place for years.

But the provisions highlight yet again the danger to free expression when a relative handful of private companies serve as gatekeepers to information networks. Whether it's a rock star ranting against President Bush or a disgruntled customer griping about shoddy service, how free is free speech in the digital era?