Home » UK ISP News Archive » Article Tag: Censorship (268 Posts)

Articles for Category Tag - Censorship

Customers of UK ISP TalkTalk Suffer Mass Website Blocking Bug

1st April, 2021 (21 Comments)

Some of TalkTalk’s UK home broadband ISP customers have suddenly found themselves unable to access lots of different websites (e.g. social media sites, the National Lottery and many more) after the internet provider’s network-level HomeSafe filter for “blocking inappropriate content” suddenly enabled itself, and wouldn’t disable.

Two UK Broadband ISPs Trial New Internet Snooping System

11th March, 2021 (70 Comments)

Two unnamed broadband or mobile ISPs are reportedly helping the UK Home Office and the National Crime Agency (NCA) to trial a new internet snooping system on their customers, which is being conducted as part of the controversial 2016 UK Investigatory Powers Act (aka – snoopers charter).

Court Order Forces UK ISP TalkTalk to Block Sci-Hub Website

18th February, 2021 (17 Comments)

Broadband ISP TalkTalk has this week updated their list of blocked websites (i.e. those where they’ve been ordered by the UK high court to do so) to include the controversial Sci-Hub, which describes itself as being “the first pirate website in the world to provide [free] mass and public access to tens of millions of research papers.”

Rights Holders Seek to Extend UK ISP Site Blocks to Stream Rippers UPDATE

5th February, 2021 (23 Comments)

Major record labels, including the British Recorded Music Industry (BPI) and Phonographic Performance (PPL), have gone to the UK High Court in an attempt to force six of the country’s largest broadband ISPs to extend their website blocks for copyright infringement to include sites that facilitate stream ripping and cyberlocker Nitroflare.

UK Internet Censorship – Damned if you do, Damned if you don’t

18th January, 2021 (68 Comments)

Prompted by Donald Trump’s ban from social media, calls are once again growing from politicians for internet sites to be held liable if they remove lawful content and users. Soon it may be a case of damned if you do, damned if you don’t, as the future approach toward protecting freedom of speech risks doing the opposite.

Online Harms – UK Finalise Plan for Ofcom Internet Regulation

15th December, 2020 (16 Comments)

The UK government has today appeared to finalise their plans for turning Ofcom into a regulator of internet content via a new legal “duty of care“, which will hand them new powers to force websites (e.g. Facebook) into removing “harmful” content (e.g. terrorism, child abuse, self-harm and suicide imagery etc.).

House of Lords Committee Probes Online UK Freedom of Speech

16th November, 2020 (10 Comments)

The House of Lords Communications and Digital Committee has launched a new inquiry, which will examine whether or not freedom of expression is under threat online and, if so, how modern technology might be used to help protect it. The inquiry will also weigh that against how such freedoms should be balanced with other rights.

UEFA Wrongfully Hit Virgin Media UK with Piracy Takedown Notice

24th August, 2020 (1 Comment)

The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) has somewhat comically included broadband ISP Virgin Media UK in their latest list of DMCA takedown notices, which as part of a crackdown against illegal IPTV services ordered Google to remove the provider’s online bundles shop from their search results.

Lords Tell UK Gov to Stop Pandemic of Internet Misinformation

29th June, 2020 (9 Comments)

A new cross-party report from the House of Lords Digital Technologies Committee has called on the UK Gov to ensure that their future Online Harms Bill can tackle the rising “pandemic of misinformation” on the internet, which they warn is a “threat” to democracy. More censorship and blocking by broadband ISPs is proposed.

13th June, 2020 (18 Comments)

Over the past decade it’s become fairly normal to see Rights Holders pursue individual broadband ISPs when one of the internet provider’s customers is suspected of committing copyright infringement (piracy). Now the same is starting to happen further upstream, with major internet backbone provider Hurricane Electric in the firing line.

Google Chrome Joins Firefox – Soft Defaults to DNS over HTTPS

20th May, 2020 (9 Comments)

The latest version (v83) of Google’s popular Chrome website browser has finally made its new ‘Secure DNS’ feature available to all, which by “default … will automatically upgrade you” to use their DNS-over-HTTPS (DoH) service. But in order to placate concerns it only does this if your current broadband ISP supports it.

Ofcom Set to Become UK Regulator for Internet Censorship

12th February, 2020 (12 Comments)

The UK Government has today proposed for Ofcom to take on the role of internet content regulator via a new legal “duty of care“, which would hand them the power to force company websites and social media firms into removing “harmful” content (e.g. bullying, terrorism, child abuse, self-harm and suicide imagery).

Parents Find UK ISP Network Level Internet Filters Beneficial

4th February, 2020 (1 Comment)

Ofcom’s latest annual ‘Children and Parents: Media Use and Attitudes‘ report has found that 9 out of 10 parents who use the network-level internet content filters provided by big UK broadband ISPs find them beneficial, but many still don’t use them and a fair few children can circumvent these systems.

Ruling by EU Court Adviser May Hamper UK Internet Snooping

15th January, 2020 (2 Comments)

The Advocate General for the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), Campos Sánchez-Bordona, has today issued a landmark legal “opinion” that could effectively limit the ability of national security agencies (e.g. GCHQ) to force internet providers (e.g. broadband ISPs) into the bulk retention of personal customer data.

2nd Queen’s Speech Echoes Gigabit Broadband and Internet Plans

19th December, 2019 (34 Comments)

The Queen has today, for the second time since October, carried out the annual State Opening of Parliament, which repeated roughly the same list of Government policy plans as her prior visit. Once again this included planned legislation to support the UK roll-out of Gigabit broadband and internet safety related regulation.

Mass Piracy Website Blocks by UK ISPs Fuel Legal Alternatives

17th October, 2019 (13 Comments)

A new study, by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and Chapman University, has examined the impact of forcing UK broadband ISPs to block individual piracy websites (via court order) and discovered that it caused a decrease in overall piracy, as well as a 7 to 12% increase in the use of legal subscription sites.

ISP UK Internet Porn Ban Stalled and Shifted to Online Harms Bill

16th October, 2019 (6 Comments)

Confusion reigns today after the Government confirmed that its controversial new internet Age Verification (AV) system, which was due to be implemented by commercial websites and “apps” that contain pornographic content (broadband ISPs would be forced to block sites that fail to comply), “will not be commencing.” But there’s a catch.