Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can you imagine a world where you could only use a specific phone model with a specific operator? or where you could only send text messages to people that is on the same network? If we can regulate phones we should be able to regulate social networks.
When the iPhone originally came out in the US it was locked together with a 2 year contract with AT&T.
Then again, this was never the case in the EU, where bundling handsets with a GSM subscription was banned.
But yes, we don’t have to imagine - and the change certainly didn’t come out of the goodness of the carrier’s hearts!