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Why would a government-mandated "pornwall" block torrentfreak?

• toyg 8y ago
  Because it's a slippery slope: the filter is loosely defined for "adult content"; there is no law, it's all voluntary. When in doubt, what would you do as an ISP, to avoid problems? Ban. Most people opt out anyway on their residential accounts, and who's likely to look at "bad" stuff in a public place like a school or library and then complain that it doesn't work? So you ban first and ask questions later. Hotels are prime candidates for keeping the pornwall up, since they'd really like to sell you their own expensive porn channels as in the good ol' times.
• DanBC 8y ago
  It wouldn't, it doesn't. This is a company buying in web-filtering from another company. There's no legislation forcing them to do this.
  • toyg 8y ago
    There is a threat of legislation. The government has made clear that, should the industry not voluntarily implement pornwalls (with default opted-in), they would have easily legislated (nobody wants to end up in The Sun as "the MP for porn"). This accelerated after the Tories got in, but it was already lingering before. All major ISPs now have a default pornwall.
    • DanBC 8y ago
      Yes, but this type of link is not being caught up in the pornwall. This blocking is a perfectly normal corporate block. There are many products that will do this type of blocking; they've existed for a long time (long before government pornwalls were suggested); and they all suck because they all block too much stuff. Shitty corporate blocking is a problem, but it has nothing to do with government blocks.
      • toyg 8y ago
        The block is branded Virgin Wifi, look at the pic in TFA. So at minimum it's an ISP-level block; I'm not aware of Virgin selling multiple blocks, so it's reasonable to assume it's the same as the pornwall.