NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] Re: Brits' Failed Heavy Metal Censorship Attempt Disrupts Wikipedia Edits
I'm not going to judge whether this strategy is the right thing for ISPs to
do or not, but I have two key points to make.
Point 1: The Wikipedia page "Virgin Killer" appears to be a photo of a naked
11 year old girl preparing to be deflowered. If you're going to pick an
example of Internet censorship to get upset about, this is NOT a good
example.
Point 2: The inability to "anonymously" edit Wikipedia via IP tracking is
caused by Wikipedia rejecting the IP address users are proxying through.
The ISPs in question are NOT the ones blocking the edits; Wikipedia is.
Furthermore, the user has the option of logging in to make the edit and this
option is MORE anonymous than getting their IP address tracked AND PUBLISHED
permanently on Wikipedia. You can for example use an anonymous email
account which offers a lot more anonymity than your dynamic IP address being
plastered publicly and permanently on Wikipedia.
George Ou
[ George, it is *precisely* because the image in question is
disturbing that it makes a *good* example. The key point of
my original piece isn't that ISPs in the UK tried to censor
that image from a 1970s record album cover. Nor was the most
important point that British anonymous Wikipedia editing was
disrupted -- the linked article was very specific.
The main issue is that such censorship attempts *don't work*!
The imagery is widely available elsewhere -- to say the least --
and the effect of such blocking attempts is simply to draw
attention to those other copies -- presumably the opposite of
the intention of the child protection group involved.
This technical reality applies regardless of whether or not the
material in question is a whistle blower's report, political or
religious items that some entity would like to block, or -- as in
this case -- a disturbing photo of a child from 30 years ago. Nor
does the technology care if the censoring attempts in question
are or are not in line with local laws and/or community standards.
Some technologies -- like the printing press and the Internet,
are "game changers" in the sense that society may wish to mold
them to historical norms, but in the final analysis society itself
tends to be more changed by these powerful and pervasive technologies
over time. This can be an uncomfortable and even painful experience.
-- Lauren Weinstein
NNSquad Moderator ]
- -
-----Original Message-----
From: nnsquad-bounces+george_ou=lanarchitect.net@nnsquad.org
[mailto:nnsquad-bounces+george_ou=lanarchitect.net@nnsquad.org] On Behalf Of
Lauren Weinstein
Sent: Sunday, December 07, 2008 3:15 PM
To: nnsquad@nnsquad.org
Cc: lauren@vortex.com
Subject: [ NNSquad ] Brits' Failed Heavy Metal Censorship Attempt Disrupts
Wikipedia Edits
Brits' Failed Heavy Metal Censorship Attempt Disrupts Wikipedia Edits
http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000478.html
Greetings. Today we're handed yet another in a veritable cornucopia
of examples showing why attempts to censor the Internet may disrupt
and hassle, but can't really effectively block anything, and
frequently have exactly the opposite of the intended effect.
In this case, we learn how a British watchdog group flagged a
Wikipedia article about a heavy metal album -- Scorpions' "Virgin
Killer" -- which features a naked prepubescent girl on the cover
(partially obscured by a "broken glass" effect).
Six British ISPs, who seem to slavishly follow the edicts of the group
in question, blocked all access to the associated Wikipedia page by
running Wikipedia through filtering proxies, which had the side effect
of breaking some forms of Wikipedia editing, apparently due to the
proxies showing all users as coming from single IP addresses
( http://tinyurl.com/wikipedia-censorship-uk ).
And of course, this action has now generated far more interest in that
album cover than would ever have likely otherwise been the case, and
naturally that image can be located trivially and virtually instantly
as a multitude of copies at any number of image search sites. It took
me less than 15 seconds to find it at a non-Wikipedia source just now.
Anyone in Britain can easily do the same thing.
Whether or not the image in question is viewed as offensive, the utter
stupidity and futility of attempting to block such materials on the
Internet has been demonstrated again and again -- and the collateral
damage that can be caused by such attempts is made ever more clear.
These are technological realities that cannot be effectively changed
by political posturing or "magic" filters, regardless of how upsetting
we may individually find any particular Internet content to be. The
sooner that we accept this fact, and understand that the traditional
mechanisms of top-down content control are no longer relevant in
today's world of global communications, the sooner we can move on to
dealing with society's real problems in manners that are truly
effective, rather than just useless "feel good" flotsam and jetsam.
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
lauren@vortex.com or lauren@pfir.org
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
http://www.pfir.org/lauren
Co-Founder, PFIR
- People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org
Co-Founder, NNSquad
- Network Neutrality Squad - http://www.nnsquad.org
Founder, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com
Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com