Who could have predicted that strong-arming ISPs into hastily implementing content filters intended to stamp out pornography would be a disaster? Well actually, pretty much everyone could except for the architects of the policy itself — one of whom, ironically, was just charged with allegedly possessing child pornography. Now The Guardian is reporting that “nearly one in five of the most visited sites on the Internet are being blocked by the adult content filters installed on Britain’s broadband and mobile networks.”
Essentially, assorted filters on different ISPs have blocked websites ranging from “a Porsche car dealership, two feminist websites, a blog on the Syrian War” and a popular political blog. For their part, U.K. ISPs are encouraging customers to alert them whenever non-pornographic content is getting filtered so that they can investigate the reasons why that content was blocked.
All of this is cold comfort to people like Philip Raby, a U.K. Porsche dealer who found that his business’s website had been blocked by ISP O2 for now apparent reason. Raby tells The Guardian that he’s sent emails and made phone calls to O2 but so far nothing has worked.
“We must have lost some business as a result,” he tells The Guardian. “It doesn’t look great telling people the site is not suitable for under 18s!”
