I experienced a bit of a shock yesterday when I was away from home and was forced to use an institutional computer — which had its Internet content “filtered” by “SonicWALL Integrated Content Filtering.” Their stated goal is to help organizations:
….increase productivity and reduce legal and privacy risks by automatically enforcing acceptable use policies while minimizing administration overhead.
More from their site:
Category Blocking. SonicWALL CFS employs an innovative rating architecture that utilizes a dynamic database of millions of URLs, IP addresses and domains to block up to 50+ categories of objectionable and inappropriate Web content such as porn, hate, violence and others, providing network administrators with greater control to transparently enforce acceptable use policies.
You thought your local library only censored pornography?
“We selected SonicWALL based on the product’s ease-of-installation and maintenance, high performance, and low cost — about half as much as other comparable alternatives. Another boon to the Library is that SonicWALL comes with additional features such as firewalling — which we never even budgeted for, but is included in the cost of the unit.”
Susan Fuller
Santa Clara County Librarian
Here’s what’s being censored (note that mere discussion is enough, because the software obviously can’t distinguish between discussion and advocacy):
Filtering Categories
Violence/Profanity (graphics or text)
Pictures or text exposing extreme cruelty, or physical or emotional acts against any animal or person which are primarily intended to hurt or inflict pain. Obscene words, phrases, and profanity is defined as text that uses, but is not limited to, George Carlin’s 7 censored words more often than once every 50 messages (Newsgroups) or once a page (Websites).
Partial Nudity
Pictures exposing the female breast or full exposure of either male or female buttocks except when exposing genitalia. (Excludes all swimsuits, including thongs.)
Full Nudity
Pictures exposing any or all portions of the human genitalia. Excluded from the Partial Nudity and Full Nudity categories are sites containing nudity or partial nudity of a wholesome nature. For example: Websites containing publications such as National Geographic or Smithsonian Magazine. Or sites hosted by museums such as the Guggenheim, the Louvre, or the Museum of Modern Art.
Sexual Acts (graphics or text)
Pictures or text exposing anyone or anything involved in explicit sexual acts and or lewd and lascivious behavior, including masturbation, copulation, pedophilia, and intimacy involving nude or partially nude people in heterosexual, bisexual, lesbian or homosexual encounters. Also includes phone sex ads, dating services, and adult personals, CD-ROM’s, and videos.
Gross Depictions (graphics or text)
Pictures or descriptive text of anyone or anything which are crudely vulgar or grossly deficient in civility or behavior, or which show scatological impropriety. Includes such depictions as maiming, bloody figures, or indecent depiction of bodily functions.
Intolerance (graphics or text)
Pictures or text advocating prejudice or discrimination against any race, color, national origin, religion, disability or handicap, gender, or sexual orientation. Any picture or text that elevates one group over another. Also includes intolerant jokes or slurs.
Satanic/Cult (graphics or text)
Pictures or text advocating devil worship, an affinity for evil or wickedness, or the advocacy to join a cult. A cult is defined as: A closed society that is headed by a single individual where loyalty is demanded and leaving is punishable.
Drugs/Drug Culture (graphics or text)
Pictures or text advocating the illegal use of drugs for entertainment. Includes substances used for other than their primary purpose to alter the individual’s state of mind, such as glue sniffing. This would exclude currently illegal drugs legally prescribed for medicinal purposes (e.g., drugs used to treat glaucoma or cancer).
Militant/Extremist (graphics or text)
Pictures or text advocating extremely aggressive and combative behaviors, or advocacy of unlawful political measures. Topics include groups that advocate violence as a means to achieve their goals. Includes “how to” information on weapons making, ammunition making, or the making or use of pyrotechnics materials. Also includes the use of weapons for unlawful reasons.
Sex Education (graphics or text)
Pictures or text advocating the proper use of contraceptives. This topic would include condom use, the correct way to wear a condom and how to put a condom in place. Also included are sites relating to discussion about the use of the Pill, IUD’s, and other types of contraceptives. In addition to the above, this category will include discussion sites on discussing diseases with a partner, pregnancy, and respecting boundaries. Excluded from this category are commercial sites wishing to sell sexual paraphernalia.
Questionable/Illegal Gambling (graphics or text)
Pictures or text advocating materials or activities of a dubious nature which may be illegal in any or all jurisdictions, such as illegal business schemes, chain letters, copyright infringement, computer hacking, phreaking (using someone’s phone lines without permission), and software piracy. Also includes text advocating gambling relating to lotteries, casinos, betting, numbers games, on-line sports, or financial betting, including non-monetary dares.
Alcohol & Tobacco (graphics or text)
Pictures or text advocating the sale, consumption, or production of alcoholic beverages and tobacco products.
OK, now I don’t mean to be alarmist, and I don’t like to overreact. The first thing I noticed (and, what prompted me to do this research) was that my own blog was blocked. I could not read it, post to it, anything. I simply got a black page with a block in the middle which read “SONIC WALL CONTENT BLOCKED.”
“Well, that’s just my web page!”, I thought. They probably hate homos or something. And I talk about all kinds of controversial topics. “Let’s try some others.”
Not being able to open my blog, I was unable to just click on favorite links (which kills me, because I know I have missed many of you), so I did the next best thing: I went to InstaPundit, and, starting at the bottom, clicked on his links and wrote down which ones were blocked by SonicWALL. Here, then, is the list, along with a few more I was able to find by clicking around from other blogs.
Across the Atlantic
Justene Adamec
Adragna & Vehrs
The Agitator
Charles Austin
Howard Bashman
Big Arm Woman
Bigwig
BitchGirls
Blogs of War
Edward Boyd
Capt. Scott’s
Cato the Youngest
ChicagoBoyz
John Cole
Crooked Timber
Deinonychus
Kim du Toit
Electrolite
The Fat Guy
Dr. Frank
Fraters Libertas
Geek Press
Gut Rumbles
Gweilo Diaries
Andrea Harris
Jim Henley
IMAO
Iberian Notes
Kate
Kathy Kinsley
Alex Knapp
MadPony
Mudville Gazette
Dawn Olsen
Suman Palit
David Pinto
Right Wing News
Silent Running
Laurence Simon
Roger L. Simon
Skippy
Soundbitten
Spoons
Jim Treacher
Howard Veit
The Volokh Conspiracy
War Liberal
Oliver Willis
Winds of Change
Matthew Yglesias
Pejman Yousefzadeh
Zogby Blog
Eschaton
AgendaBender
Discount Blogger
Croooow Blog
Damnum Absque Injuria
Kin’s Kouch
Jennifer’s History and Stuff
Wizbang
Robert Prather
Rocket Jones
Snooze Button Dreams
Kausfiles
Publius
On the Third Hand
Ghost of a flea
If your blog is NOT LISTED above and you are linked by Glenn Reynolds, that means that as of last night, SonicWALL was not blocking you.
I am sure this changes from day to day, depending on what you have posted about. The problem is, dumb software like this does not distinguish between discussion of something and advocacy of it. So, if you merely talk about cults, guns, nudity, racism, gambling, pornography, weapons, or drugs, your blog will be censored.
Isn’t it nice to know that in the future, there will be no more controversies?
That’s what I call a Utopia!
For more on this creeping fascism (forgive the hyperbole, folks; I do know there’s a difference between the Storm Troopers and content filtering!) watch the company’s reassuring film about How It All Works.
Meanwhile, if you want people to be able to access your blog, steer away from any discussion of controversial topics.
A word to the wise…..
UPDATE: It occurred to me that even posting the above descriptive language about prohibited topics — which I lifted directly from SonicWALL’s web site — might be enough to get your blog blocked. Wish I had a couple of days to experiment with their device. Does anyone out there have access to SonicWall?
MORE: SonicWALL’s website links to this article — billed as “SonicWall’s CEO shares his view on The National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace.”
Surely the government isn’t inadvertently pushing blog censorship?
INADVERTENT MISSING LINK: I noticed belatedly that the above link to Frank J. goes to a page other than Frank J.‘s own blog. That page is blocked, but so is Frank J.’s (I remember checking it independently.) So don’t worry! Frank J.’s missing link really isn’t missing!
UPDATE (12/12/04): I just learned that Glenn Reynolds has linked to this post. Thanks Glenn, and welcome everyone.
If you are coming here for information about SonicWALL — please read my more recent post on the subject, which has valuable information on how to get unblocked. I followed a commenter’s advice, and the last time I checked, my blog was no longer blocked.
But yechh! What a nuisance!
MORE: Anomalously, (as Glenn Reynolds points out) content like this is not being censored by SonicWALL. (Obviously, it takes discipline and quality control… and so forth.) Censorship, like pain, is all part of the Hedonistic Imperative; “an issue of social policy and ethical choice.” If that’s not socially redeeming, what is?
Comments
12 responses to “IS YOUR BLOG ON THIS LIST????”
Why, It Must Be Free Speech Friday
Silflay Hraka: Fine with the Red Chinese, but definitely out of bounds as far as SonicWALL Integrated Content Filtering is concerned. At least we’re in good company….
That description of Sexual Acts, masturbation, copulation [i.e., the embrace, as I call it], and heterosexual, bisexual, homosexual, Lesbian intimacy or encounters, the mere mention of swimsuits under Partial Nudity, Satanic/Cult, devil worship, an affinity for evil and wickedness — all of that. And the titles of those two controversial Christ movies, “The Last TEMPTATION of Christ”, and then “The PASSION of The Christ”. Ban the word “suggestive” — it is too suggestive!
I must say that descriptions of pornography or obscenity, especially by those who would censor or ban them, are usually more arousing to me than the pornography itself. I’m a pervert.
I think my blog would be near the top of the list of those they would have to screen out, in terms of content. I noticed that Dean’s World was omitted from your list. Does not Instapundit (Glenn Reynolds) link to Dean and Rosemary Esmay? He should, it would seem to be right up his alley, in terms of what they write about and their general point of view. Right after you, that’s my favorite blog these days.
If you want to see a really shocking view of President Bush, filled with an unending stream or torrent of devastating facts and arguments, plus cussing and — explicitly — eternal damnation (or worse, says Arthur, if he could think of a punishment worse than eternal damnation), read Arthur Silber’s Light of Reason. He’s an Ayn Rand admirer. I don’t know anybody, including any Leftist, who _hates_ Bush quite as much as does Angry Arthur, nor with better reason. If Glenn Reynolds wants to Instalanche somebody based on their white-hot hatred for this President and his policies, Arthur should be getting an Instalanche every day. I don’t think our friend Jeff Soyer hates Kerry quites as much as Arthur hates Bush.
Steven,
I hate to disappoint you, but your blog was not blocked; it went through just fine. No problem loading Dean Esmay or Arthur Silber. (Frankly I was surprised.)
As I said in my post, I dutifully went through every single link at InstaPundit, and carefully wrote down the blocked ones. All other links worked (last night at least).
Apparently, hatred of Bush is not as offensive to SonicWALL as talking about weapons or gambling.
Go figure!
Up With Beauty was not obscene??! We need a new Supreme Court! Protect the children from liberal, libertarian, or libertine filtering software which fails to censor lewd, lascivious, libidinous Lesbian-worship! When the SSM fight is won (if ever), I’ll be back to glorifying S&M.
Dean and Rosemary recently ran two posts expressely dedicated to glorifying the F-word and the feminine C-word(s), and I’m proud to say I helped abundantly.
As to Arthur, I think I went off on a tangent there. I wasn’t thinking of your censorware but of Glenn Reynolds’s response to my screed, and comparing it to the coronary that that venerable blog-father or blog-grandfather would have to be having if he ever read Arthur. I hope he does someday, because Arthur writes humongous 4-part and 7-part essays on super-serious momentous topics and complains that no one ever reads him or responds to his arguments. He’s written the equivalent of a number of books on vital philosophical and political questions.
I would have been * so * disappointed if the Flea had not been blocked.
After I went through the InstaPundit blogroll I ran as many of my blog friends whose URLs I could remember. I had no time to evaluate why some were blocked and others weren’t. I was surprised to find so many were not blocked, especially the more deserving. (But I didn’t want to list the unblocked — for fear of hurting their feelings.)
Steven, maybe you should consider a lawsuit against SonicWELL for not showing due consideration….
One solution, do as I do, have my site rated by ICRA, RSAC, and SafeSurf, so it will be blocked. Weird my employer ignores the ratings thou, it does block sites. Does tend to keep out the fundies.
I don’t know that any government has ever pushed any censorship — inadvertently.
More blogosphere blocking
It seems the “enterprise web filter software” that Brock tested in September isn’t the only popular censorware product that blocks a large number of weblogs; Eric of Classical Values took SonicWALL’s web filter for a spin and, s…
hey, thanks for letting me know i was blocked by sonicwall!
i never even heard of sonicwall, but i guess they’ve heard of me!
i didn’t notice, was independent thought one of the parameters for blockage?
Censored
Eric says our site is being censored by a popular web filter. If we talk about guns or reloading ammunition, perfectly lawful and respectable topics, we’re blocked. If I say that I had a drink last night, a perfectly lawful
I had a similar problem in Kuwait. The army uses websense as their evil filtering software. They can also ratchet it up and down to control bandwidth. ie when the shooting started, they blocked everything but .mil and financial sites. Very aggravating.
It took them a while, but eventually they found chinpokomon (probably noticed me posting to it) and blocked it.
bastards