AOL has been accused of censoring e-mails sent from addresses belonging to a campaign opposed to the providers CertifiedEmail system, where advertisers can pay to avoid the ISP's junk filters:

Emails containing the DearAOL.com web address are bounced back to the sender. A test email sent by vnunet.com on Thursday afternoon was returned. The error message linked to a web page that explained that:

"There is at least one URL in your email that is generating substantial complaints from AOL members.". AOL spokesperson Nicholas Graham said in an emailed statement to vnunet.com that the filtering was due to a "glitch" and that is has since been fixed.

Meanwhile the DearAOL.com campaign has gathered signatures from an astonishing 350,000 Internet users and 600 organisations, not that AOL will take any notice. More @ VNUNet.