O2 are censoring the internet!

skelliser

Once again ireland is at the helm in internet censorship, following eircoms decision to ban the pirate bay.

Today O2 ireland have on the behest of the Internet watch foundation blocked the image hosting site imgur.com.
http://www.reddit.com/r/ireland/comments/ckutv/fuck_you_02/

Who are the unelected/unaccountable internet watch foundation i hear you ask?
http://www.iwf.org.uk/
When did they decide that you cannot visit certain site?

I recommend that if you are with O2 you request this nonsense to be stopped and failing that move to a different ISP.

Overheal

<post removed by O2>

Flojo

Grrr aslong as UPC doesn't buckle I'm happy. Anyone know how that court case went a few weeks ago?

PCPhoto

Flojo wrote: »

Grrr aslong as UPC doesn't buckle I'm happy. Anyone know how that court case went a few weeks ago?

its still ongoing .... ct6 in the Four Courts (I think)

Sparky

Fixed link

Flojo

PCPhoto wrote: »

its still ongoing .... ct6 in the Four Courts (I think)

Ugh hope they don't follow the same route.

phill106

any examples of blocked links? want to check this out!

skelliser

they have blocked the entire site! http://imgur.com/ because the iwf have decided that there is kiddy porn on it. But imgur say in there T&c
that they actively remove any inapropriate material.

Im not with them so can see it fine but others have said they get a O2 redirect page.

Flojo

thepiratebay.org

Healium

Grrr, this is really annoying. TWICE today they've blocked me

Overheal

skelliser wrote: »

they have blocked the entire site! http://imgur.com/ because the iwf have decided that there is kiddy porn on it. But imgur say in there T&c
that they actively remove any inapropriate material.

Im not with them so can see it fine but others have said they get a O2 redirect page.

I can see it fine but wouldn't you rather use http://pix.sparky-s.ie/ ?

:cool:

skelliser

i might, nice site!

But thats not the point, this is the thin end of the wedge.

Healium

Surely there's some form of contract breach here? Anyone?

phill106

skelliser wrote: »

they have blocked the entire site! http://imgur.com/ because the iwf have decided that there is kiddy porn on it. But imgur say in there T&c
that they actively remove any inapropriate material.

Im not with them so can see it fine but others have said they get a O2 redirect page.

Flojo wrote: »

thepiratebay.org

Ummm i can go to both of those sites, on O2. Turned off wifi to make sure wasnt my broadband conenction.
What have you two been doing!

Saibh

skelliser wrote: »

they have blocked the entire site! http://imgur.com/ because the iwf have decided that there is kiddy porn on it. But imgur say in there T&c
that they actively remove any inapropriate material.

Im not with them so can see it fine but others have said they get a O2 redirect page.

Just opened the above link on my mobile (using o2), not blocked or redirected.

skelliser

well its here
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055678122&page=13
on reddit and a friend of mine on a o2 dongle cant get on it either.

RolandIRL

can't get it but i've noticed that a couple of months ago back in about december. as long as they don't block p2p or file-hosting sites, i don't give a fúck!

generalmiaow

They have blocked i.imgur.com
Not imgur.com

Notice that google's DNS has a different record for i.imgur.com as O2's. This is how they implemented it.

[PHP]$dig @8.8.8.8 i.imgur.com
...
content.ldj1.site.voxcdn.net. 172 IN A 72.26.192.194

$dig i.imgur.com
...
i.imgur.com. 86400 IN A 62.40.38.145
...
;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
i.imgur.com. 86400 IN NS dns2.o2.ie.[/PHP]

It is stupid that o2 block domains based on IWF recommendations without even checking them first - stupid that they block domains at all.

Min

I'm with O2 and I can access the first link given.

Min

for i.imgur.com I get:

HTTP 403 Error - Access denied

For further information, please go to www.o2.ie/childprotection.

blubloblu

They'll probably end up unblocking imgur. The long-term problem is that some organisation in the UK is maintaining a secret list of what isn't allowed on the Internet, and O2 is voluntarily obeying it.

This is unacceptable.

Pressure should be put on O2 to end this censorship entirely. IWF started up to block child pornography, but have since moved on to racism. It's the thin end of the wedge. This isn't the first time a legitimate site has gotten blocked by these people.

generalmiaow

Oh man:
http://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/cl1um/internet_censorship_test/

This is getting out of hand. I hope O2 do their best to rethink this.

Min

They are censoring the mobile phone section of the internet, not the entire internet.
It seems using mobiles to access the internet is seen as a risk when it comes to children and the number of young people who have phones and this measure is to help parents, parents that can monitor the child on the home computer but maybe not when it comes to the mobile internet.

generalmiaow

Min wrote: »

They are censoring the mobile phone section of the internet, not the entire internet.
It seems using mobiles to access the internet is seen as a risk when it comes to children and the number of young people who have phones and this measure is to help parents, parents that can monitor the child on the home computer but maybe not when it comes to the mobile internet.

I know you're not defending them, but I can still access porn sites fine on my phone, and most of imgur is just pictures of cats. This is across the board for all their internet services, not just mobile phones (see my post about the DNS above). If they wanted to block sites for the protection of kids, there are far more sensible ways of doing this, like 3's, (I think) where there is a per-sim block on adult sites until you contact them and prove your age.

Imgur is blocked because the IWF - an unelected, unaccountable body in another country, were told there was something questionable on imgur. There is probably far more dodgy content on facebook. The solution is to tell these hosts to remove the offending images, not block the whole site. O2 have made a terrible mess out of this.

owenc

Ugh well as long as i get my unlimited free texts, unlimted internet and unlimited free calls for only £15 i'm fine!

JohnK

Min wrote: »

They are censoring the mobile phone section of the internet, not the entire internet.

Doesnt seem to be blocked on my phone via 02; trying to access http://i.imgur.com just takes me to http://imgur.com

RolandIRL

generalmiaow wrote: »

Imgur is blocked because the IWF - an unelected, unaccountable body in another country, were told there was something questionable on imgur. There is probably far more dodgy content on facebook. The solution is to tell these hosts to remove the offending images, not block the whole site. O2 have made a terrible mess out of this.

i was reading on wikipedia that the IWF told UK ISPs to block the site after a "controversial" album art was put up and reported. rather than complain to wikipedia and get them to remove the artwork, block the whole site, and that'll solve the problem. :rolleyes:
blocking sites that might contain child porn is wrong. you need to complain to the hoster and get them to remove the content.
someone in the Midband thread mentioned should o2 block their own website over references to child porn.
i read through the thread and they're breaching their own T&C's because they say in their contract with you that they do not regulate/block/control internet content, and they take no liability for any content that may be illegal. yet they're denying that they have broken their contract.
cop on o2, why should ye listen to a private body about the internet? if i set up an Internet Foundation, does this mean i can tell ISPs to block loads of sites? No, i think if someone wants to block websites, let it be the government, not some private fúcking foundation.

/rant

Min

ok, it all seems a bit silly then.

owenc

whiteman19 wrote: »

i was reading on wikipedia that the IWF told UK ISPs to block the site after a "controversial" album art was put up and reported. rather than complain to wikipedia and get them to remove the artwork, block the whole site, and that'll solve the problem. :rolleyes:
blocking sites that might contain child porn is wrong. you need to complain to the hoster and get them to remove the content.
someone in the Midband thread mentioned should o2 block their own website over references to child porn.
i read through the thread and they're breaching their own T&C's because they say in their contract with you that they do not regulate/block/control internet content, and they take no liability for any content that may be illegal. yet they're denying that they have broken their contract.
cop on o2, why should ye listen to a private body about the internet? if i set up an Internet Foundation, does this mean i can tell ISPs to block loads of sites? No, i think if someone wants to block websites, let it be the government, not some private fúcking foundation.

/rant

Are you sure its not o2 ireland cuz i'm in the uk and i can access those sites on my phone.

generalmiaow

owenc wrote: »

Are you sure its not o2 ireland cuz i'm in the uk and i can access those sites on my phone.

The IWF have no power, they just tell the UK ISPs they should block a site occasionally. Sometimes they do. On the other hand, O2 Ireland admit pre-emptively blocking sites on the IWF list and only unblocking them if people complain.

starbelgrade

Flojo wrote: »

thepiratebay.org

Crap site. Great if you wanna spend half the night waiting for a film to buffer, or guess what the subtitles would be saying if there were any.

Freefaller

You could also look at it this way, everything you look at on the internet is censored in some way because if you use a search engine like google they control what results i.e information you get. So if you want information that they think inappropriate then they can just omit it from the search engine results.

JohnK

JohnK wrote: »

Doesnt seem to be blocked on my phone via 02; trying to access http://i.imgur.com just takes me to http://imgur.com

Min wrote: »

ok, it all seems a bit silly then.

Weird, I just tried it again but this time its blocked

squod

They're hosting some right wierd stuff alright, just look at the size of this blokes cock ! ((:eek:))

http://i.imgur.com/xYdF0.jpg

jptk

Im not with O2, im with UPC but have a feeling this censorship rubbish is going to spread. Is there any point in starting a petition? Reckon it will do any good?

JohnK

Probably no point tbh as I doubt they really care how we feel about censorship like this since all they'll do is scream "think of the children" and 99% of their customer base will think they're wonderful. Never the less, I'll be lodging a complaint with 02 and I'll begin looking into Vodafones/Meteor/3's offerings as I cannot in good conscience pay money to a company whos censoring my internet access unless I have no choice. Might well be pointless if all the networks start it but if thats the case I'll just be investing in an uncensored vpn and do all my browsing through that.

starbelgrade

jptk wrote: »

Im not with O2, im with UPC but have a feeling this censorship rubbish is going to spread. Is there any point in starting a petition? Reckon it will do any good?

You could start a Facebook protest page. Just make sure you do it quickly - I heard that it's the next one up on the censorship list.

generalmiaow

jptk wrote: »

Im not with O2, im with UPC but have a feeling this censorship rubbish is going to spread. Is there any point in starting a petition? Reckon it will do any good?

Petitions are completely useless. Short of going out and pulling cables out of walls in ISPs, it's far better to send letters to TDs and CEOs - I have seen real results from that on other things - or better yet, phone them. Besides, there's no point in petitioning against something that doesn't exist yet. I have contacted a few TDs about the censorship rumours/leaks a month or two ago, and I got several responses.

Ivana Bacik is quite interested in freedom of speech and access to information, for example. You don't have to care what parties they are from as long as they will speak up. The Irish council for Civil Liberties, also. I got the brush off from David Norris and a few others, but some politicians understand this sort of thing and would be concerned if they heard about it - but they depend on people like us to tell them.

blubloblu

generalmiaow wrote: »

Petitions are completely useless. Short of going out and pulling cables out of walls in ISPs, it's far better to send letters to TDs and CEOs - I have seen real results from that on other things - or better yet, phone them. Besides, there's no point in petitioning against something that doesn't exist yet. I have contacted a few TDs about the censorship rumours/leaks a month or two ago, and I got several responses.

Ivana Bacik is quite interested in freedom of speech and access to information, for example. You don't have to care what parties they are from as long as they will speak up. The Irish council for Civil Liberties, also. I got the brush off from David Norris and a few others, but some politicians understand this sort of thing and would be concerned if they heard about it - but they depend on people like us to tell them.

I got the exact same impression of Bacik and Norris when I wrote to them about the department of justice seeking to bring in their own blacklist.

RolandIRL

http://i.imgur.com is no longer blocked by o2. i can access it fine now.

guess they unblocked it now.

JohnK

Still blocked on my phone but I found last night that I was able to see it the first time then it was blocked after that so its probably just a glitch.

RolandIRL

yeah i'm blocked again from seeing squod's huge cock

AAAAAAAHHH

whiteman19 wrote: »

i was reading on wikipedia that the IWF told UK ISPs to block the site after a "controversial" album art was put up and reported. rather than complain to wikipedia and get them to remove the artwork, block the whole site, and that'll solve the problem. :rolleyes:
blocking sites that might contain child porn is wrong. you need to complain to the hoster and get them to remove the content.
someone in the Midband thread mentioned should o2 block their own website over references to child porn.
i read through the thread and they're breaching their own T&C's because they say in their contract with you that they do not regulate/block/control internet content, and they take no liability for any content that may be illegal. yet they're denying that they have broken their contract.
cop on o2, why should ye listen to a private body about the internet? if i set up an Internet Foundation, does this mean i can tell ISPs to block loads of sites? No, i think if someone wants to block websites, let it be the government, not some private fúcking foundation.

/rant

The government blocking websites is just as bad.

JohnK

I'd say the government blocking sites is worse actually. While 02 are scum to be blocking things at least we can take our business elsewhere in protest but if the government are doing it then for the most part people are just screwed.

generalmiaow

blubloblu wrote: »

I got the exact same impression of Bacik and Norris when I wrote to them about the department of justice seeking to bring in their own blacklist.

Yeah - I cant find Senator Norris' reply to my several paragraph email, but it was one line that went like
"I have no idea what you're talking about, but blocking child pornography sounds like a great idea!" :eek:

It disturbs me that most people probably think so simplistically and persuading them otherwise would be a huge effort, and of course, if you try then people will accuse you of defending pedophiles.

Mango Joe

O2 - See what you can't do......

mloc

All we need to do is get it to the ECJ and they'll overturn it; worked for Spain.

generalmiaow

Block on imgur is lifted. however Daryll says the censorship will continue "for the children".

Gaunty

Overheal wrote: »

I can see it fine but wouldn't you rather use http://pix.sparky-s.ie/ ?

:cool:

Just went to that site and first pic i see on the random uploads by the public is... http://pix.sparky-s.ie/1ba85.jpg

What the...

Overheal

Gaunty wrote: »

Just went to that site and first pic i see on the random uploads by the public is... http://pix.sparky-s.ie/1ba85.jpg

What the...

That was DeV's April Fools joke for 2008.

So O2 are supporting a group which is actively searching the internet for child porn?