Take a blow for freedom (providing proxy Internet access service through Anonymizer for folks in repressive countries like Iran and China), add in equal parts prudery and stupidity, shake well, and serve, and what do you have?
Something that looks a lot like this.
The U.S. government concocted a brilliant plan a few years ago: Why not give Internet surfers in China and Iran the ability to bypass their nations’ notoriously restrictive blocks on Web sites?
Soon afterward, the U.S. International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB) invented a way to let people in China and Iran easily route around censorship by using a U.S.-based service to view banned sites such as BBC News, MIT and Amnesty International.
But an independent report released Monday reveals that the U.S. government also censors what Chinese and Iranian citizens can see online. Technology used by the IBB, which puts out the Voice of America broadcasts, prevents them from visiting Web addresses that include a peculiar list of verboten keywords. The list includes “ass” (which inadvertently bans usembassy.state.gov), “breast” (breastcancer.com), “hot” (hotmail.com and hotels.com), “pic” (epic.noaa.gov) and “teen” (teens.drugabuse.gov).
I’m equal parts offended by the doltish by which this was done, and the sentiment behind it. I can appreciate the image trouble, at the very least, behind this decision (headline: “US Taxpayer Funds Chinese Net Porn Viewing!”), but when you’re talking about giving folks access to the free world, turning back around and saying, “Yeah, but not all of it,” seems a bit hypocritical.
And … yeesh, could they have figured out a worse way of doing things? I mean, come on, filter it through some commercial net blocker, if you feel compelled by Mrs. Grundy to do so, but at least be reasonably effective about it.
A look at the keyword list of what’s apparently blocked, I can see a few that arguably it would be difficult to say are not adult-related. On the other hand, in addition to the words above, any site using “dick” (cheney, anyone?), “jack,” “boy,” or “my” and “tv” (so much for access to Malaysian and Tuvalu-TLDed sites) may be in trouble. Not to mention …
The official naughty-keyword list displays a conservative bias that labels any Web address with “gay” in them as verboten–a decision that affects thousands of Web sites that deal with gay and lesbian issues, as well as DioceseOfGaylord.org, a Roman Catholic site.
More to the point, the U.S. government could have set a positive example to the world regarding acceptance of gays and lesbians–especially in Iran, which punishes homosexuality with death.
Perish the thought.
(via BoingBoing)