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Internet censorship in the United Kingdom

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Internet censorship in the United Kingdom takes various forms, including blocking access to sites, and laws that criminalise publication or possession of certain material, particularly child pornography, within the United Kingdom.

Filtering

British Telecommunications ISP passes Internet traffic through a service called Cleanfeed which uses data provided by the Internet Watch Foundation to identify pages believed to contain indecent photographs of children.[1][2] When such a page is found, the system creates a 'URL not found page' error rather than deliver the actual page or a warning page. Other ISPs use different systems such as WebMinder [1].

The new Home Office Minister Vernon Coaker has set a deadline of the end of 2007 for all ISPs to implement a “cleanfeed”-style network level content blocking platform.[3][4] Currently, the only websites ISPs are expected to block access to are sites the Internet Watch Foundation has identified as containing images of child pornography.[2] However such a platform is capable of blocking access to any website added to the list (at least, to the extent that the implementation is effective), making it a simple matter to change this policy in future. The Home Office has previously indicated that it has considered requiring ISPs to block access to articles on the web deemed to be “glorifying terrorism”, within the meaning of the new Terrorism Act 2006, saying "However, our legislation as drafted provides the flexibility to accommodate a change in Government policy should the need ever arise."[3] The measures have been criticised for being inadequate as they only block accidental viewing and does not prevent content delivered through encrypted systems, file sharing, email and other systems.[5]

On 5 December 2008 the IWF system blacklisted a Wikipedia article on the Scorpions album Virgin Killer (see Internet Watch Foundation and Wikipedia). A statement by the organisation's spokesman alleged that the album cover, displayed in the article, contained "a potentially illegal indecent image of a child under the age of 18".[6] Users of major ISPs, including Virgin Media, Be/O2/Telefonica, EasyNet/UK Online, Demon and Opal, were unable to access the content, despite the album cover being available unfiltered on other major sites including Amazon.co.uk[6], and available for sale in the UK[7]. The system also started proxying users, who accessed any Wikipedia article, via a minimal number of servers, which resulted in site administrators having to block them from editing Wikipedia or creating accounts.[8][9] On 9 December, the IWF removed the article from its blacklist, stating: "IWF's overriding objective is to minimise the availability of indecent images of children on the Internet, however, on this occasion our efforts have had the opposite effect."[10]

Laws on pornography

In 2003, after the murder of Jane Longhurst by Graham Coutts, a man who claimed to have an obsession with Internet pornography,[11] the government announced plans to crack down on sites depicting rape, strangulation, torture and necrophilia.[12][13][14] Liz Longhurst also campaigned to tighten laws regarding pornography on the Internet. In August 2005, the Government announced that instead of targetting production or publication, it planned to criminalise private possession of what the Government has termed "extreme pornography"[15][16] Such adult pornography will be illegal to possess from January 2009.[17]

In September 2008, Scotland announced its own plans to criminalise possession of what it termed "extreme" adult pornography, but extending the law further, including depictions of rape imagery.[18]

In Scotland, 2004, a committee of Members of the Scottish Parliament has backed a call to ban adult pornography as the Equal Opportunities Committee supported a petition claiming links between porn and sexual crimes and violence against women and children.[19] A spokeswoman said "While we have no plans to legislate we will, of course, continue to monitor the situation." In 2007, MSPs looked again at criminalising adult pornography, in response to a call from Scottish Women Against Pornography for pornography to be classified as a hate crime against women. This was opposed by Feminists Against Censorship. [20][21]

Libel laws

Lawyers representing the British chemical firm Tate & Lyle PLC, manufacturer of the artificial sweetener Sucralose, have used UK libel laws to compel the US-based health activist Joseph Mercola to block Internet access, from the United Kingdom, to articles claiming that sucralose is harmful. If a UK user tries to access an article mentioning Sucralose on the Mercola website then the site instead displays a message with the text: 'Attorneys acting on behalf of the manufacturers of sucralose, Tate & Lyle PLC based in London, England, have requested that the information contained on this page not be made available to Internet users in England.'

Internet regulations

In 2008, the Government announced plans to crack down on the Internet, tightening up controls in order to "even up" what they claimed was an imbalance with TV regulations. [22][23][24]

There have been concerns over the increasing amount of Internet regulation and fears that the Internet may become more restricted in future, with critics drawing parallels with George Orwell's 1984.[25][26]

See also

References

  1. ^ "IWF/BT Project CleanFeed", Internet Watch Foundation. Retrieved 29 May 2006.
  2. ^ a b "How net providers stop child porn", BBC News, 7 February 2006. Retrieved 29 May 2006.
  3. ^ a b "Government sets deadline for universal network-level content blocking", LINX, 29 May 2006. Retrieved 29 May 2006.
  4. ^ "Govt sets target for blocking child porn sites", The Register, 18 May 2006. Retrieved 29 May 2006.
  5. ^ "Restricting All but the Predators", Dark Reading, 14 June 2006. URL accessed on 24 June 2006.
  6. ^ a b Wikipedia page censored in the UK for 'child pornography' The Guardian, 8 December 2008
  7. ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/dec/08/wikipedia-censorship
  8. ^ http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/12/07/brit_isps_censor_wikipedia/
  9. ^ http://community.zdnet.co.uk/blog/0,1000000567,10009938o-2000331777b,00.htm
  10. ^ "IWF backs down on Wiki censorship". 2008-12-09. Retrieved 2008-12-09.
  11. ^ "Man guilty of teacher murder", BBC News, 4 February 2004. Retrieved 29 May 2006.
  12. ^ "UK police seek web porn crackdown", BBC News, 5 February 2004. Retrieved 29 May 2006.
  13. ^ "MP calls for violent porn ban", BBC News, 9 February 2004. Retrieved 29 May 2006.
  14. ^ "Crackdown due on violent web porn", BBC News, 15 August 2005. Retrieved 29 May 2006.
  15. ^ "Ban on violent net porn planned", BBC News, 30 August 2005. Retrieved 19 May 2006.
  16. ^ 'Extreme' porn proposals spark row
  17. ^ http://www.backlash-uk.org.uk/ruddell.html
  18. ^ http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2008/09/24132838/4
  19. ^ "MSPs back pornography ban calls", BBC News, 2 November 2004. Retrieved 29 May 2006.
  20. ^ http://news.scotsman.com/topstories/MSPs-set-to-take-close.3344392.jp
  21. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/6334167.stm
  22. ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/sep/26/digitalmedia.internet
  23. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7644849.stm
  24. ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/jun/11/digitalmedia.media
  25. ^ "Doubts over web filtering plans", BBC News, Bill Thompson, 11 June 2004. Retrieved 19 May 2006.
  26. ^ "The end of the internet?", BBC News, 14 September 2000. Retrieved 29 May 2006.
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