British ISPs Block Wikipedia (Wikinews)

[DrewWilson]

Wikinews has learned that at least six of the United Kingdom's main Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have implemented monitoring and filtering mechanisms that are causing major problems for UK contributors on websites operated by the Wikimedia Foundation, amongst up to 1200 other websites. Wikinews has also learned that some ISPs have blocked customers from accessing some Wikimedia websites including the free, online encyclopedia, Wikipedia, altogether. The filters appear to be applied because Wikimedia sites are hosting a Scorpions album cover which some would call child pornography. The Scorpions is the band behind "Rock You Like a Hurricane" and produced a number of controversial album covers.

The measures applied redirect traffic for a significant portion of the UK's Internet population through six servers which can log and filter the content that is available to the end user. A serious side-effect of this is the inability of administrators on Wikimedia sites to block vandals and other troublemakers without potentially impacting hundreds of thousands of innocent contributors who are contributing to the sites in good faith.

The filtering is in response to the Internet Watch Foundation's list of websites that host or contain content that have been reported to contain inappropriate images of naked children, under the age of 18. The IWF considers those images to be child pornography.

Contributors or individuals attempting to view an affected image or file, depending on their ISP, may get a warning saying, "we have blocked this page because, according to the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), it contains indecent images of children or pointers to them; you could be breaking UK law if you viewed the page.". Other ISPs provide blank pages, 404 errors, or other means of blocking the content.

More... (http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/UK_ISPs_erect_%27Great_Firewall_of_Britain%27_to_c ensor_Wikimedia_sites)

Via BoingBoing (http://www.boingboing.net/2008/12/07/britains-great-firew.html)

Anyone from Britain here?

[mountain_rage]

Seems odd considering Europe is very open with nudity. Maybe that is a big misconception. Guess it all comes down to what is pornography, is nudity pornographic, or is it sexual acts?

[lynnsip]

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[Feather]

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[Hath]

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[DrewWilson]

Update!

Wikimedia Foundation applauds IWF decision to reverse Wikipedia censorship in the United Kingdom

San Francisco CA, December 9 - Earlier today the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), a non-profit agency tasked with preventing access to potentially illegal internet content, reversed its ruling earlier this week that prevented over 95% of UK internet users from accessing an article about an album by a German rock band, The Scorpions. As a result, UK Wikipedia users were unable to access all of the editing functions on Wikipedia. With this decision, the IWF has removed Wikipedia from its internet 'blacklist.'

"We are grateful to the IWF for making this swift decision, and to thousands of internet users from around the world for their outpouring of support," said Sue Gardner, Executive Director of the Wikimedia Foundation. "Millions of Britons now have access to all of Wikipedia, and volunteers can resume their important editing work. The Wikimedia Foundation greatly admires the work of our volunteers - they care deeply about Wikipedia and are the first responders in dealing with potentially illegal content on Wikipedia." Gardner added that both the Foundation and its community of users "work hard to be responsive and responsible when it comes to legitimate legal concerns."

Mike Godwin, General Counsel for the Wikimedia Foundation stated: "We recognize the good intentions of Internet watch groups, including their focus on blocking and discouraging illegal content. Nevertheless, this incident underscores the need for transparency and accountability in the processes of the Internet Watch Foundation and similar bodies around the world."

More... (http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/Censorship_resolution_of_WP_in_the_UK_Dec_2008)

Good news for Wikipedians. Commentary from EFF (http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2008/12/internet-censors-must-be-accountable-things-they-b).

Edit: Commentary from Open Rights Group (http://www.openrightsgroup.org/2008/12/08/iwf-censors-wikipedia-chaos-ensues/)

[Allansia]

Even though its over, that's funny, especially since its in Europe.