Question about Content Filtering-Censorship

Submitted by MaxTek on June 3, 2007 - 4:06pm

The ISP's I am checking into are using SonicWall to filter content (websites). I can see this being a good idea for schools, libraries and the like but isn't it Censorship to do it for all its customers? It seems how they filter sites is on a very broad set of keywords. Also, wouldn't they have to notify paying customers that they now content filter?

MaxTek's picture

Submitted by MaxTek on June 3, 2007 - 4:24pm.

For instance; www.hackaday.com is blocked. When was case hacking porn?

BDub's picture

Submitted by BDub on June 3, 2007 - 6:39pm.

They've likely got something built into their end user contracts. As for notifying customers, most contracts from ISPs and the like state that terms may change at any time and it's the customers responsibility to keep us with changes.

I'm assuming this is your ISP. Give them a call and see what they say. How are filters decided? Why is filtering done? Is it to limit their liability? Can it be turned on and off for each account? Is it a child safety thing that got activated for everyone and can be turned off by request? Etc.

ISP's in the States are pretty much in the clear for liability as long as they comply with DMCA requests and the like. It'd surprise me if it wasn't some setting that an overly zealous manager decided should be enabled by default.