Southwest Airlines has been catching a lot of flack lately. After a high-profile system meltdown in 2022 led to the cancellation of thousands of flights, consumer confidence in the company diminished. This year, Southwest disappointed fans again by announcing it would no longer offer two checked bags for free. An end to the open seating system is also coming soon. This may be enough for some frequent fliers to consider a different airline. But if you need another reason, it turns out Southwest is censoring cannabis content.
RELATED: The media is lying to you about legal weed
I find myself at the airport a lot as I cover multiple facets of the emerging industry. While typically a Delta devotee, I do sometimes switch it up. On a recent Southwest flight, I attempted to complete routine work for GreenState. However, the in-flight wifi had different plans: I could not access the site. When I tried to go to another cannabis-related site, this time for pro-legalization advocates NORML, the same “security” error popped up.
It quickly occurred to me that the internet service provider (ISP) was likely blocking weed-related content. It’s happened to me before on a rare day I used public wifi (I’m looking at you Albuquerque International Sunport), but I was surprised to find myself in this situation on Southwest. I’d never had an issue doing my job when flying Delta, United, JetBlue, or a smattering of other airlines.
Viasat, the ISP utilized by Southwest, informed me that any “content available is determined by each individual airline.” I figured as much.
A representative from Southwest quickly shared the company’s official in-flight internet policy via email:
“Southwest Airlines reserves the right to block content including obscene materials and websites promoting substances recognized by the federal government as Schedule I drugs under the Controlled Substance Act.”
When I pointed out that the vast majority of Americans live in a place with some type of cannabis reform—and that other airlines lack this type of censorship—the rep simply replied:
“We’re always keeping tabs on what’s important to our Customers, including the types of websites they’re interested in so that we can have an improved inflight experience.”
RELATED: People say this weed sucks – here’s why they’re wrong
Why is Southwest so adamantly anti-cannabis? The answer is still unclear. Looking into the Board of Directors, the political leanings are somewhat innocuous. Checking out Southwest’s Texas-based political action committee (PAC), donations are fairly even in terms of funds given to Democrat and Republican politicians. Republicans are given more, but again, this tracks given the tendency of the GOP to promote more favorable policy for industry.
Perhaps Southwest simply wants to play it safe. After all, cannabis is indeed illegal on the federal level. The vast majority of airlines refuse to budge on the subject of employee consumption, even banning flight attendants from using CBD. And big tech companies like Meta continue to censor plant-specific content, going so far as to ban cannabis creators seemingly every day just for talking about weed.
However, given that other major airlines allow passengers to scroll freely, it makes me wonder if Southwest Airlines does have some type of internal prohibitionist mindset. My advice to the company? Get with the times.
