UK “Porn Filter” Triggers Widespread Internet Censorship

[Reefa]

A new tool released by the Open Rights Group today reveals that 20% of the 100,000 most-visited websites on the Internet are blocked by the parental filters of UK ISPs. With the newly launched website the group makes it easier to expose false positives and show that the blocking efforts ban many legitimate sites, TorrentFreak included.

Internet filters are now on the political agenda in many countries around the world. While China and Iran are frontrunners for political censorship, the UK is leading the way when it comes to porn and other content deemed unsuitable for children.

In addition to the mobile restrictions that have been in place for years already, last summer Prime Minister David Cameron announced a default filter for all Internet connections. This means that UK Internet subscribers are now required to opt-in if they want to view ‘adult’ content online.

These default filters have led to many instances in which perfectly legitimate sites can no longer be accessed. This very website, for example, was inaccessible on Sky Broadband after it was categorized as a “file-sharing” site. The false positive was eventually corrected after the BBC started asking questions, but that didn’t solve the underlying problem.

In an attempt to make it easier to spot overblocking the Open Rights Group (ORG) has today launched a new site. The embedded tool runs probes on all the major broadband and mobile filters of UK ISPs, and allows people to check which sites are blocked and where.

The first results are quite scary. A review of the 100,000 most-popular sites on the Internet reveals that 20% are blocked by at least one of the filtering systems.

“We’ve been surprised to find the default filtering settings are blocking around a fifth of the Alexa top 100k websites. That’s a lot more than porn, which accounts for around 4% of that list,” ORG’s Executive Director Jim Killock informs TorrentFreak.

The list of blocked domains includes many legitimate sites that aren’t necessarily harmful to children. TalkTalk, for example, blocks all file-sharing related websites including bittorrent.com and utorrent.com. TorrentFreak also appears to be listed in this category and is blocked as well.

Linuxtracker, which offers free downloads of perfectly legitimate software, is blocked by Sky, TalkTalk and Three’s filters, while the blocked.org.uk tool itself is off-limits on BT, EE and Virgin Media.

Perhaps even worse, the BT and TalkTalk filters also categorize social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter as potentially dangerous to children, and the same applies to Reddit.

Reddit is blocked as well

With the new tool ORG hopes to provide more insight into what these filters do and how many sites they block. The ISPs themselves have thus far failed to reveal the scope of their filters.

“People need to know what filters are, and what they block. They need to know they are inaccurate, and also disrupt people’s businesses and speech,” Killock tells TF.

“If people feel they need them, that is their right, but they should at least know they’re very flawed technology that won’t protect them very much, but will also be likely to cause them problems. In short, they are a bit rubbish,” he adds.

The current results of the tool are based on various filtering levels. This means that the list of blocked sites will be even longer when the strongest settings are used.

It’s worth noting that all ISPs allow account holders to turn filters off or allow certain sites to be unblocked. However, many people may not even be aware that this option exists, or won’t want to unblock porn just to get access to file-sharing software.

The results of ORG’s new tool show that what started as a “porn filter” has turned into something much bigger. Under the guise of “protecting the children” tens of thousands of sites are now caught up in overbroad filters, which is a worrying development to say the least.

Source

[funkyy]

We all know that this campaign to block porn is just a damn smokescreen for the rich/elite/political classes and their friends in big business to.-

a) Curtail our democratic right to access information.

b) Allow us "freedom", but only the "freedom" they deem suitable....conditional freedom

c) Ensure that blood-sucking big business/executives can maintain their monopoly in making great profit from talented artists and innovators.

d) To keep us on a leash, just long enough to give us the false impression of being free, while in reality being controlled by a faceless rich elite class.

Edited July 2, 2014 by funkyy

[kmcknight2001uk]

How about if we started to filter out our money when it comes to paying these ISPs..... I bet it would be a different story if we did.

Anyway, it just educates the average user on other technologies (which are harder to monitor and block) to get the content they want which is all good in my book.

The more they blocked sites, the more I discover new technologies/protocols and techniques to get around it all! :D

[VileTouch]

*relevant*

[Rok]

No worries! sooner or later, we will be back in the stone age :D

[The Owl]

OK now I will give you guys an example of internet being bad.

A family in North London fairly well off (RICH) that happen to be customers a few years ago the Husband travelled a lot the Lady was very high up at a University the eldest child a 14 year old boy and a 8 year old girl, the computer was in the "Family" room and only used under control because of course their little angels would not use it without permission.

8 year old turned it on one morning before school and as she sat there with "Mummy watching the browser came up with the sight of a well hung Black Guy getting a "Blow Job" ejaculating all over a young (15 - 18 at a guess) white girl.

Needless to say Mummy was upset Daughter was extremely disturbed and Mummy immediately a, blamed Hubby talking about divorce and b, phoned me to come sort it.

I went up and dug out all the spam and viri etc, and then did some digging found out WHEN it was downloaded, it turned out to be between 03:00 and about 04:00 in the morning but the dates were when Daddy was AWAY.

so I was able to prove the raging hormone Son had been surfing when everyone thought he was asleep.

This convinced Mummy to allow me to password the machine so only once it was "Opened" by Her the rest of the family could surf. Problem solved

But now the Most of the UK ISP's work a system whereby you "OPT IN" to bypass the Parental controls and get Porn.

Surely far more sensible.

Now think about this OK most of you are not old enough to have kids but would you like it if your 8 year old Daughter suddenly was facing such porn?

[funkyy]

I agree that making the default setting to block porn is fine....but I suspect it's just the thin edge of the wedge...for sure they'll start introducing more and more, tighter and tighter controls aimed at anything that big business feels is a "danger" to their profits. And how long before irreversible "default" settings are introduced/imposed?

[The Owl]

that is where those who VOTE have a duty to control