Home » UK ISP News Archive » Article Tag: Censorship (316 Posts)

Articles for Category Tag - Censorship

The Top Broadband ISP Technology and Internet Policy Changes for 2014-15

2nd January, 2015 (12 Comments)

The past year has been all about technology and deployment, with the Government’s Broadband Delivery UK scheme dominating via its efforts to push BT’s 80Mbps capable Fibre-to-the-Cabinet (FTTC / VDSL2) service out to even more areas, but a lot more than that has happened. ISPreview.co.uk highlights some the key Internet technology, policy and anti-piracy developments of 2014 and predicts what might occur in 2015.

UK ISPs Start Hijacking Website Browsing to Push Censorship Filters

20th December, 2014 (10 Comments)

As expected all of the United Kingdom’s largest broadband ISPs are now starting to interrupt the website browsing sessions of their existing customers in order to offer them an enforce option about whether or not to enable their network-level filtering (Parental Control) services, which block websites that are deemed to contain “adult content” and is a Government requirement.

UK High Court Forces Big ISPs to Block 53 New Internet Piracy Websites

28th November, 2014 (45 Comments)

Section 97A of the United Kingdom’s Copyright, Designs and Patents Act (CDPA) has come in handy again after Rights Holders won one of their most significant victories to date, securing a court order that forces all of the country’s largest broadband ISPs to block 53 websites that were found to facilitate Internet copyright infringement (piracy).

Big ISPs to Add ‘Report a Terrorist’ Button and Block Related Websites

14th November, 2014 (14 Comments)

The United Kingdom’s largest four broadband ISPs, including BT, Virgin Media, Sky Broadband and TalkTalk, have reached an agreement with the Government to block their customers from accessing terrorist and extremist material on the Internet. The ISPs will also offer a reporting button so that the public can notify providers when new sites crop up (we’re sure nobody will spam that with comical suggestions).

Sky Broadband’s Shield Internet Filter Adds Watershed Feature

10th November, 2014 (2 Comments)

Customers of UK ISP Sky Broadband (BSkyB), specifically those who elect to enable the providers free network-level filtering “Shield” service that works to block websites which contain “adult content” from view by young eyes (censorship), may like to know that a new watershed feature has just been added.

Virgin Media’s Censorship Tool Bodges UK Customers Internet Traffic

10th November, 2014 (0 Comments)

Cable operator Virgin Media has issued a brief apology after an unspecified number of their customers suffered problems accessing websites due to a fault with the ISPs Web Safe (Parental Control) service, which uses network-level filtering to block “potentially age-inappropriate websites” from the eyes of children.

UK Court Forces Big ISPs to Block 21 New P2P Torrent Websites

24th October, 2014 (9 Comments)

As expected several major record labels and trade bodies, including the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), Sony Music and Universal Music etc., have successfully won multiple court orders that will force all of the country’s largest broadband ISPs to block their customers from accessing 21 P2P Torrent (BitTorrent) indexes, which were found to be facilitating Internet copyright infringement (piracy).

The Cost of Getting UK ISPs to Block a Website via Court Order

22nd October, 2014 (6 Comments)

How much does it cost to block a website via court order in the United Kingdom? According to the solicitor acting for Richemont, Simon Baggs of Wiggin LLP, the cost of forcing ISPs to block a website via the court process is roughly £14,000 per site. But that’s not the only cost involved and consumers could ultimately end up paying the price.

UK High Court Forces Big ISPs to Block Websites for Trade Mark Abuse

17th October, 2014 (7 Comments)

The High Court of Justice in London has today ruled on a case that concerned the abuse of commercial Trade Marks. Crucially the outcome means that several of the United Kingdom’s largest broadband ISPs (BT, Sky Broadband, Virgin Media, EE and TalkTalk) can now also be forced to block websites that abuse company trademarks / logos, such as by dealing in counterfeit goods.

Study Finds UK ISP Internet Censorship Not the Best Approach for Kids

15th October, 2014 (2 Comments)

A new survey of over 2,000 children (aged 14 – 17) from across the United Kingdom, which was jointly conducted by the Oxford Internet Institute and The Parent Zone, has claimed that restricting kids from accessing the Internet by using network-level ISP censorship (Parental Control) systems might not be as effective as allowing them to self-regulate their own online use.

Luxury Goods Maker Wants ISPs to Block Websites for Trade Mark Abuse

26th September, 2014 (5 Comments)

Broadband ISPs in the United Kingdom could soon be forced to block websites that abuse commercial Trade Marks, assuming the owner of luxury brands including Cartier and Mont Blanc (Compagnie Financière Richemont SA) gets their way in a new court case, which Internet providers and the Open Rights Groups (ORG) are fighting.

EE’s UK Internet Content Blocking System Goes Haywire

18th September, 2014 (3 Comments)

Customers of EE’s mobile service in the United Kingdom, specifically those who may be attempting to surf the Internet using their 3G or 4G based data connections (Mobile Broadband), are today being hit by sporadic problems that can result in legitimate websites being wrongfully blocked.

UK ISP Adult Internet Website Blocking Report Finds Limited Take-up

22nd July, 2014 (3 Comments)

Ofcom has today published a new report that looks at the measures adopted by four of the largest broadband ISPs (BT, Virgin Media, TalkTalk and Sky Broadband) to help parents “protect children from harmful content online” by offering network-level filtering (censorship) systems to block adult sites. But adoption by new subscribers is fairly limited and there have been a number of errors.

The Pirate Bay Internet Traffic Grows Despite ISP Blocking

18th July, 2014 (8 Comments)

Can skin-deep website blocking measures by broadband ISPs really help to curb Internet piracy (copyright infringement)? According to the latest traffic data from one of the most notorious and widely blocked sites of all, The Pirate Bay, visitor numbers have climbed despite many ISPs across several major countries censoring access.

UK Government Agrees – Too Much Internet Content Regulation is Bad

4th July, 2014 (1 Comment)

The Government has just given its official response to the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee’s inquiry into Online Safety, which in March 2014 warned that website blocking by UK ISPs was “highly unlikely to be a suitable approach” for tackling porn or violent material on the Internet (here). Broadly the government agrees, but you should still expect more filtering by ISPs in the future.

UK ISP TalkTalk Coughs to Censorship of Political Blogger Guido Fawkes

2nd July, 2014 (2 Comments)

Internet provider TalkTalk has confirmed that their HomeSafe Parental Control service (i.e. network-level filtering) does indeed block customers from being able to view the website of well-known right-wing political blogger and journalist Guido Fawkes (Paul Staines) – http://order-order.com, which is despite the ISP initially issuing a strong denial. Sadly they don’t plan to lift the ban.

Parents Say UK ISPs Still Not Doing Enough to Protect Children Online

1st July, 2014 (10 Comments)

A new survey of nearly 500 parents conducted by Super Camps during June 2014 has found that 80% of respondents think broadband ISPs and regulators (Ofcom) have not yet done enough to make the Internet safe for children to use, which is despite all of the major providers now offering an enforced option to enable Parental Controls.