Censorship and Your ISP

There are different areas of consideration in relation to net neutrality and website blocking. An Internet Service Provider (ISP) can block access to illegal websites; however, when an ISP selectively blocks IP addresses not relating to any legal issues, it becomes a First Amendment argument. Most people that live in the US have no clue that the websites that they have access to might be censored by their ISP. In the land of free speech there are some ISPs that play net nanny for you, and this is not only something that is done in China or Iran. I discuss this in the book as it is something that I encountered in the course of my own research, but at the time I was appalled – maybe I still am, although the shock has long since worn-off. The truth is that nothing surprises me anymore.

I recently came across an article, written by Nate Anderson and dated January 14, 2009, that discussed the UK ISP, Demon, accidentally censoring out the Way Back Machine on the Internet Archive website – the ISP's net nanny filtered the website into its child porn filtering system, which is not even remotely understandable to me. This website archives internet history, including the various versions of my own website from my former business. To me this is analogous with censoring which specific accounts of history I'm allowed to read.

If I sound indignant it's because I hear the US government knocking the People's Republic of China and Americans denouncing the practice in other countries, but what about the practice here in the US? Today it's not just China, Iran, Bahrain, or Cuba that practice internet censorship through ISPs – Germany, Australia, Denmark, Poland, and the UK recently announced intentions to utilize internet censorship tools. Censorship of blogs has created quite a stir in India and Wikia came-up with a list of ISPs that block Blogspot, Typepad, and Geocities, and that means that this harmless, yet hopefully informative, article could not be read by the great majority of people in India that have internet access.

At the very least, it's time to request information from your ISP on their censorship policies, but also consider telling your friends about this practice with the hope that they too will question. I know that I don't need my ISP to play net nanny and filter what I can view. At least in Bahrain the people have petitions circulating to put a stop to internet censorship. Where are all of the First Amendment attorneys and the ACLU? Where is the indignation?