Telus, the Canadian phone and ISP giant, has been blocking access to a Telus employee-sponsored Web site. Telus is in negotiations with their employee union, and no Telus customer using the company's Internet access services can view the Web site.
Telus claims that the site is publishing company confidential information and encouraging people to clog support lines with bogus service complaints.
But if those two claims are true, the company could pursue legal remedies. If the company can prove to a judge that confidential information is on the site (which should be trivially easy), a court order could force the shutdown of the site--legally.
It's hard to understand what Telus expects to gain from such heavyhanded tactics except a lot of bad publicity.
Unfortunately, a private company that owns its network end to end can do this with impunity. It illustrates a key reason why shared ownership of networks is important; when property owners and the community own much of the infrastructure, it becomes much more difficult to block the free flow of information.
In fact, there are higher issues than competition and affordability when discussing broadband. Free speech is also a consideration.