The Great Chinese British Firewall: Censorship Extends Beyond Pornography
July 28th, 2013If this was forced on me, here’s what I’d do (short of leaving the country): Manually whitelist a VPN provider in a more free country and then run everything through that connection.
I’m sure I’ll hear pretty quickly if cryptogon.com is blocked by default once this thing is up.
Via: IBT:
U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron announced Monday that British Internet service providers (ISPs) must install porn filters and require customers to opt-in for adult content. Cameron said the policy is aimed at combating child porn and the “corroding influences” of sexual content in the U.K., but several people are unhappy with the plan. Reports have linked the filters to controversial Chinese company Huawei, and others have found that the filters will block much more than just porn. Some ISPs have publicly refused to force the filters on their users.
The Open Rights Group spoke with several ISPs and found that in addition to pornography, users will also be required to opt in for any content tagged as violent, extremist, terrorist, anorexia and eating disorders, suicide, alcohol, smoking, web forums, esoteric material and web-blocking circumvention tools. These will all be filtered by default, and the majority of users never change default settings with online services.
