I want to start keeping a list of who is blocking, banning and or censoring my websites. So far I have had readers in California write in saying that the site is blocked in many public school systems. I also have two notes from readers who work in different companies (both Fortune 500) in which the site is banned due to "Violent Content."
If your company, school, institution, ISP etc blocks my sites, please post in the comments section. I dont think I am up for any big fights on this subject but I do enjoy knowing whose skin I am getting under and which companies not to support :)
Here is a screen capture sent in by a friend showing my site blocked on their work computer because of "Violence."
...first off I love your work and please keep it up! Found out about you from your appearance on "In Harm's way" But as a person who works in IT (Information Security to be exact). Web content filters are usually "appliance" based filters that in many cases the company who employs them doesn't have explicit control over (usually the vendor does). Also when any company who uses any of given appliance decides to block a site, in **some** cases those filters are then shared and distributed among other companies who use the same appliance if enough companies block the same site or content. Most companies have a protocol for "un-blocking" a site that may have been inadvertently blocked. So it's up to the employee to notify their local IT/Infosec dept and request for it to be "unblocked". Unfortunately most companies will probably leave the block in, unless there is a specific "Job related" reason for the employee to view your site. (This is one of the many reasons got sick and tired of it and I left corporate america and now work for a University!) Anything (and I do mean ANYTHING) that is big news gets misused by nefarious hackers and spammers. Even Steve Jobs' recent death was used to get people to click on links with malware. Are there situations where upper management block certain terms/content absolutely YES. I hope this helps. As I stated before keep up the incredible work you do!
Posted by: myke | October 13, 2011 at 23:15
Interesting Myke, thank you for sharing. Any idea how a public school system goes about the process (it bothers me more that students would not have access to the site then it does that a company keepings its workers away while on the job.) I am also interested in knowing if sites like CNN, BBC etc could get blocked for "Violent Content."
Posted by: Zoriah | October 14, 2011 at 00:39
The sad part about your site being blocked, is that students can not learn from your images,the harsh realities for so many. I don't find them offensive, find that they can be very educational, especially to those that life for granted.
Posted by: Jamie | October 14, 2011 at 00:50
@ ZORIAH
...wrt blocking sites in public schools it really depends on the IT infrastructure in place. (Staff, network architecture & $$) I worked for an elementary school district way before I sold my soul to corporate america and there we used a locally installed client that was updated each day and it blocked whole entire sites. This particular client was geared towards schools/parents so it would block a lot of content. "False positives" are kind of a gray area when it comes to filtering this way because it airs on the side of "not letting little kids see bad stuff". These days whole networks can be filtered by using a proxy server and/or a firewall (sometimes a combination of both referred to as an appliance) to filter content which in theory has more fine-grain controls. Also certain companies/schools use these "appliances" which sit between the network and the internet and these appliances can block specific pages of a site as opposed to the whole site. So yes it's possible to block a specific article/page on CNN/BBC but it it's not a "smart" process because it's usually based on just keywords. Most of the vendor controlled appliances also have some proprietary method for determining what gets blocked and what doesn't. "Black-listing" and "White-listing" sites is the usually method a company/school has to explicitly deny/allow a site with these appliances but again that takes staff & time which usually becomes a $$ issue. Because it can be a huge burden to have an IT guy site all day allowing/denying site-block requests. So most cases companies/schools let the "black box" appliance do it's thing, which is usually in the hands/control of the vendor's "proprietary content filtering method". So it's really hard to say if any given public/private school across the US has your site blocked or not. I work for a university and at that level of education we don't typically block much as I'm sure most universities are. BTW, this "content filtering" issue is also similar to how companies bock/allow email. By saying "similar" I mean it's usually an appliance that a vendor has most of the control of "what gets dropped", "sent to junk" or "actually makes it into a person's inbox". Hope this helps!
Posted by: Myke | October 14, 2011 at 18:54
As a history teacher, a few years back, I was starting research on Hitler. I was prohibited from viewing any websites related to the subject. Knowledge is power and tunnel vision leads to ignorance. I lived in Costa Rica for one year and saw the truth on television, newspapers, and magazines. To be more specific I saw death, violence, and blood. As Americans we are not used to the stark truth being displayed for all to see. I find the truth refreshing. After spending 2.5 years in Balad and Baghdad, Iraq I was frustrated every time I returned stateside because the news media sugar coats the truth leaving people unable to reach their own conclusions. Keep fighting the fight for our 1st Amendment rights Zoriah. The truth will set all of us free. The Middle East is working on just that as we speak.
Posted by: Dianne | October 15, 2011 at 20:41
Your net doors are always open on my servers...without imagery like yours how can we learn? All we need now are those that create policy to learn, learn that invariably there's few if any winners, only those that lose their life.
Keep up the good work and getting under the skin of those that should feel ashamed.
Posted by: Paul | October 16, 2011 at 11:36
As Americans we are not used to the stark truth being displayed for all to see.
Posted by: LED street light | October 17, 2011 at 05:28
I do a little freelancing for a UK police force now and then and I'm afraid to say that your sites are blocked there now too.
Shame on them
Posted by: Neil | October 18, 2011 at 00:37
why blocked?
Posted by: sivilce nasıl geçer | October 29, 2011 at 16:01
I do not quite understand
Posted by: yesh | November 16, 2011 at 08:05
"Internet connection problems are most commonly caused by disconnected cables or by routers or modems that are not operating properly. First, try running the Network troubleshooter to see if it can help diagnose and solve your problem:
Open the Network troubleshooter by right-clicking the network icon in the notification area, and then clicking Troubleshoot problems.
If running the Network troubleshooter didn't solve the problem, then follow the steps described in Network connection problems in Windows."
Posted by: dich vu seo | March 05, 2012 at 11:04