Wikipedia found itself on the wrong end of a U.K. government-sponsored blacklist last week, after the Internet Watch Foundation found the cover art of a 1976 LP to fit its definition of child pornography.
The album in question, “Virgin Killer” by German metal band Scorpions, depicts a nude prepubescent girl with a glass crack blocking view of her genitals.
According to an administrative noticeboard on Wikipedia and a report on CNET, surfers attempting to visit Wikipedia from Virgin Media, BeUnlimited, Telefonica O2 UK, EasyNet, UK Online, Sky Broadband, PlusNet, Demon, BT, Eclipse Internet, Kingston Communications, and Opal, are routed through a transparent proxy set to block articles on the album and its cover art.
As a side effect, surfers routed through the proxy are unable to anonymously edit Wikipedia pages – due to the fact that traffic coming through the proxy carries the IP address of the proxy server, not the individual user.
“Due to the way the block was created (via transparent proxies), users from the affected ISPs now share a small number of IP addresses,” reads the noticeboard. “This means that a user committing vandalism cannot be distinguished from all the other people on the same ISP. Unfortunately, the effect of this is that all users from the affected ISPs are temporarily blocked from editing Wikipedia, unless logged in.”
Users having their traffic routed through the proxy are still able to view Wikipedia normally, and can post edits if they are logged.
Statements from ISPs largely acknowledged the issue but declined to offer any meaningful support.
“We are unable to offer support for this issue,” reads a posting from Virgin’s tech support newsgroup. “It is due to a decision [made] in conjunction with the IWF to block sites containing [potentially] offensive material.”
Bob Pullen from Plusnet clarified the details of how the proxy is implemented:
“Just for the record, I’d like to let it be known that our IWF proxies are definitely *not* third party,” he writes. “The kit is owned by us and resides on our network in one of our London data centers … It’s probably also worth noting that we don’t keep logs etc. of the IP addresses that go through the proxies … the only purpose of this filtering is to protect our customers from inadvertently accessing indecent images of children.”
News of the IWF’s blacklist in the U.K. follows similar, larger initiatives in Australia, whose policy has earned it the reputation as one of the most restrictive countries in the Western world. Recent policy changes saw the country maintaining two, separate blacklists: a primary list for sites deemed illegal and another secondary list for content unsuitable to children. The primary filter is implemented into the country’s internet infrastructure and cannot be circumvented through normal means, while the secondary list is available to households who opt in.
Like Australia, the IWF’s blacklist raises free speech concerns in the UK – with some going so far as to compare the system with the China’s nationwide firewall.
“I had no idea until now that like China, we too have built a great firewall – only we keep quiet about ours,” writes user Hahnchen. “This is the first I've come across UK wide internet censorship, and I'm shocked.”