T-Mobile loses its dust-up with digital rights advocate EFF

Last week, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) uncovered that T-Mobile’s Binge On program throttles all streaming video, accused the “Uncarrier” of violating net neutrality, and concluded that “the FCC should investigate.”

In response to the EFF, T-Mobile CEO John Legere posted a video rant on Twitter defending Binge On and asking, in his signature unhinged persona, “who the f--k are you anyway, EFF? Why are you stirring up so much trouble…?”

EFF is, of course, a major, decades-old membership organization that advocates for consumer interests and digital rights. EFF Activism Director Rainey Reitman responded to Legere’s rant with ablog post titled, "Friends, Please Tell T-Mobile’s CEO About EFF,” inviting supporters to “please send a tweet to Mr. John Legere and introduce yourself using the hashtag #WeAreEFF.” They did – and one video startup evenquit T-Mobile’s Binge On program over EFF’s net neutrality concerns.

Now it seems that Legere has had enough. He’s apologized “for offending EFF and its supporters.” But despite the apology, T-Mobile has yet to recognize EFF’s concerns or implement EFF’s recommendations for the Binge On program. Instead, T-Mobile has a meeting scheduled with the FCC to defend its throttling service. We’ll see whom the FCC sides with -- consumer advocate EFF or labor law violator T-Mobile.

T-Mobile throttles all video, misleads customers—again (Speed Matters, Jan. 4, 2016)

John Legere asks EFF, “Who the f**k are you, and who pays you?” (Ars Technica, Jan. 7, 2016)

Friends, Please Tell T-Mobile’s CEO About EFF (EFF, Jan. 7, 2016)

Video startup quits T-Mobile’s Binge On over net neutrality concern (Ars Technica, Jan. 8, 2016)

T-Mobile parent company faces pressure from investors over anti-worker policies (Speed Matters, Jan. 8, 2016)