Last week I reported that 95% of British Residential ISPs Censor – but I think I’m OK, so I’d like to quickly update on what I’ve seen happen since then:-
- My question to the Phone Coop’s election candidates has gone unanswered – not sure why
- I asked 3 how to switch off IWF filtering on Tuesday – first call-back on Wednesday couldn’t do anything except escalate it. I’m still waiting for further reply at the time of writing.
- Cockspiracy reports no good news from Virgin Media – you can have porn on your cable TV but not on your cable internet, OK?
- Digital-Scurf Ramblings shows Daniel Silverstone accusing Virgin Media of being unfit for purpose, as I understand it
- EFF: Internet Censors Must Be Accountable For The Things They Break
- Looks like a positive result with the Aussie plan to censor Web in shreds
- I read the preface to Animal Farm: “The sinister fact about literary censorship in England is that it is largely voluntary. Unpopular ideas can be silenced, and inconvenient facts kept dark, without the need for any official ban. … because of a general tacit agreement that ‘it wouldn’t do’ to mention that particular fact.” George Orwell, 1945. Still current in 2008?
Not only did 3 gie me all kinds of lies and flannel when I tried to establish why Mowser[0] was blocked, but they have thus far utterly failed to get back to me (as they promised they would by last Monday) about why I can’t access the development version of my college’s student website[1].
An interesting tidbit that came from the second battle, however, is that they implement their own filtering above and beyond the IWF blacklist.
Some choice words from conversation #1:
“We’re legally required to use the IWF list”
“So why can I get to this site on other ISPs?’
“Well I can’t comment on other providers”
…
“The IWF will listen to individuals but they wouldn’t take any input from their corporate partners”
….
etc. etc. ad 3-hours-later-am
[0] http://mowser.com – a page reformatter for mobiles
[1] http://supervacuo.com/stannesjcr