Want to Beat web censorship? Hate it that the government controls what you’re allowed to do on the Internet? You can fight back. Follow our insider secrets and you’ll learn how to beat web Censorship. Are you fed up with being told what you can and can’t see online? Robert Irvine reveals who’s controlling our web access and why, and tells you how to unblock unfairly censored content.
You shouldn’t really be reading this (don’t stop, though!) because what we’re about to tell you lifts the lid of one of the most controversial and contentious topics facing web users in the UK today: online censorship. You may associate the state control of what citizens can and can’t access on the web with countries such as China, Russia and North Korea, but it’s a sad fact that the United Kingdom has also been branded one of the ‘enemies of the internet’ for being at the “heart of censorship” (bit.ly/enemies390).
Naturally, as we explain in this feature, there are perfectly valid reasons for restricting access to certain types of web content – such as sites that contain childabuse images or incite terrorist acts – but they’re being used as a pretext to block harmless sites, without any explanation or redress. If the High Court has ordered ISPs to stop their users accessing a specific website, then what harm can it do to inform us of the reasons?
Over the next eight pages, we reveal who’s responsible for censoring the most commonly targeted categories of website; offer advice for unblocking unfairly restricted content; and speak to the Open Rights Group (www.openrightsgroup.org) – a “digital campaigning organisation working to protect the rights to privacy and free speech online” – about what can be done to make online censorship fairer.
WHY WEB CONTENT IS BLOCKED
There are lots of reasons why online content is censored in the UK. Here, we look at the legal justification for blocking three types of website, and reveal who’s behind the decision
Copyright Infringement
Why is it blocked?
Torrent sites that let you download and upload films, TV shows, music, ebooks and other copyrighted material are among the most common targets of ISP blocks, with infamous names such as The Pirate Bay, Popcorn Time and KickassTorrents officially banned in the UK. This is partly because sharing content without the copyright holder’s consent breaches section 97A of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988 (bit.ly/copyright390), but also (and, some say, mainly) because the companies that own that content want us to pay rather than get it for free.
Who’s responsible?
More than 100 file-sharing services are currently blocked in the UK (you can see the full list at www.ukispcourtorders.co.uk) following orders from the High Court. These judgments require that the five big ISPs – BT, EE, Sky, TalkTalk and Virgin Media – restrict access to these sources of “pirated content” using network-level filters. The orders were requested by the members of several industry bodies including the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), the Publishers Association and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), with a spokesperson for the latter describing court orders as “a proportionate and effective measure to tackle sites dedicated to facilitating and promoting online copyright infringement”.
Some site owners have claimed that they can’t be held responsible for the content that users upload, and that they are simply providing a means of distribution that could be used, for example, to share public-domain films and ebooks. However, the judge in last year’s Popcorn Time ruling said the providers of the service did “plainly know and intend” for it to be used to infringe copyright.
Is this fair censorship?
Although we obviously don’t endorse the downloading of copyrighted material for free, trying to control file-sharing websites is like playing the fairground game Whack-a-Mole: as soon as you block one, another pops up. The entertainment industry’s best option is to work closely with streaming and download services such Netflix and Amazon to offer good value and choice, so consumers aren’t tempted to use piracy websites. A helpful start would be to remove pointless and unfair regional restrictions.
We also think it would be good practice for ISPs to offer clear explanations of why certain sites are forbidden, rather than just displaying a ‘Page not found’ message. This is the focus of the Open Rights Group’s 451 Unavailable campaign (www.451unavailable.org), which wants ISPs to make clear why websites are blocked, and the courts to publish their blocking orders.
Extremism & Politics
Why is it blocked?
The Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit (CTIRU) was set up in 2010 by the Association of Police Officers to remove content from the internet that incites or glorifies terrorist acts, under Section 3 of the Terrorism Act 2006 (bit.ly/terrorism390). The CTIRU compiles a blacklist of URLs containing extremist material and, since November 2014, the big ISPs have incorporated this into their filters.
The CTIRU, which is the only unit of its kind in the world, also issues removal requests if content that encourages terrorist acts is hosted in the UK.
Who’s responsible?
The CTIRU is controlled by the Home Office. As the terrorist threat in the UK has intensified, so the number of items blocked by ISPs has increased, with the Prime Minister warning in 2014 that the “new and pressing challenge is getting extremist material taken down from the internet”.
Since 2010, it’s estimated that the CTIRU has ordered the takedown of more than 120,000 items, much of it from social-media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. The Home Office also now provides a tool for reporting “illegal terrorist information, pictures or videos you’ve found on the internet” on its Gov.uk portal (bit.ly/report390).
Is this fair censorship?
We can’t help feeling uneasy about the government’s increasingly heavyhanded web censorship, especially David Cameron’s declaration that: “We must not allow the internet to be an ungoverned space”. Firstly, who put you in charge of the internet, pal? Secondly, the policy was implemented without public discussion and the CTIRU’s criteria for identifying and blocking ‘extremist’ websites are subjective and vague, with worrying implications for freedom of speech. By adopting a ‘proactive’ approach to seeking out extremist content, the authorities can now go far beyond censoring terrorist propaganda to include political blogs, protest campaigns, opinion pieces and videos, even if the authors and publishers aren’t breaking the law.
The privacy campaign group Big Brother Watch (www.bigbrotherwatch.org.uk) proposes that this problem could be solved by implementing a “legally sound blocking process” that requires a High Court injunction for ISPs to block extremist sites, similar to the orders used in copyright-infringement cases.
Another potential risk is that driving terrorists away from the public web will only induce them to use more devious and untraceable ways to communicate, radicalise and plot.
Pornography
Why is it blocked?
The internet opened the floodgates to pornography in the UK, but it’s still more tightly regulated here than in most Western countries. Protective (if often ineffective) measures, such as age verification on adult websites and configurable ISP content filters, have been introduced to give parents peace of mind, but many categories of porn are blocked outright for everyone.
Worst and foremost, of course, are child sex-abuse images, which are covered by legislation in the Protection of Children Act 1978 that states it is illegal to take, make, distribute, show or possess an indecent photo or pseudophoto of someone under the age of 18. Then there are ‘extreme’ forms of pornography, both written and visual, which are prohibited by the Obscene Publications Act of 1959 (bit.ly/obscene390) and section Section 63 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 (bit.ly/criminal390), which makes it an offence for “a person to be in possession of an extreme pornographic image”. Because anything you view online is saved to your browser’s cache, accessing websites containing illegal content constitutes possession.
Who’s responsible?
Since 1996, registered charity the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF, www.iwf.org.uk) has worked with the police and ISPs to minimise the availability of child sex-abuse images hosted anywhere in the world and criminally obscene adult content hosted in the UK. Since its inception, the IWF has assessed more than half a million web pages and, through its ‘Notice & Takedown’ policy, has succeeded in removing from the web 100,000 URLs containing criminal content. The IWF says that less than 0.3% of child sex-abuse images are now hosted in the UK, and all such content is taken down within four days. You can report illegal online material to the IWF through its website (www.iwf.org.uk/report).
Most UK ISPs use a blacklist of sites provided by the IWF to prevent access to illegal content, most notably BT’s Cleanfeed filtering system. Other measures include the removal of links to inappropriate content (as identified by the IWF) by search engines Google and Bing; and, as of 1 January this year, the regulation of video-on-demand services by Ofcom (bit.ly/ofcom390).
Is this fair censorship?
The IWF’s fight against child-abuse images is both necessary and commendable, but it has been criticised for its lack of accountability and the gradual expansion of its original remit, particularly because its decisions affect 95% of home internet connections. Indeed, in 2009, the IWF’s blacklist was found to contain pages on legitimate file-sharing services such as SendSpace, which caused ISPs to block access to the rest of those sites.
It’s also inevitable that people who want to view illegal material will find ways of doing so, regardless of blacklists and blocks. David Cameron has said that law-enforcement agencies are now targeting the so-called ‘dark web’ to combat the sharing of child sex-abuse images, but this is much easier said than done.
10 WAYS TO UNBLOCK WEB CONTENT
The complex nature of online censorship means there’s no single trick to access forbidden content. Here, we explain the most effective methods for bypassing unfair blocks
1 TURN OFF YOUR ISP’S FILTERS
Unless you have children or you’re particularly squeamish or prudish, you probably haven’t paid much attention to the content filters that the government ‘persuaded’ ISPs to implement. But if you switch to a new internet provider, you’ll find that parental controls are now pre-selected by default, which means you’ll need to ‘opt in’ to access legal adult sites for pornography, dating, gambling, alcohol and tobacco, weapons and violence, and more. Sky recently went even further by automatically switching on its Broadband Shield filter for all new customers and for existing customers who hadn’t specifically requested that it not be turned on. This protection may be handy for families, but for freethinking grown-ups who prefer to set their own limits, it’s a pain in the a***.
So here’s how to turn off your ISP’s filters. Note that this advice only disables the parental controls, not the network-level filters that block illegal content.
BT Parental Controls
Log into bt.com/mybt with your BT ID, scroll down to My Extras and click ‘Personalise your settings’ in the Parental Controls section. Move the slider to Off, then click the ‘Delete settings’ button.
Sky Broadband Shield
This one’s easy: just go to broadbandshield.sky.com, log in with your Sky ID and click ‘I don’t want to use Sky Broadband Shield’. If you change your mind or decide you want some ‘light’ filtering, choose ‘18 – Suitable for adults only’.
TalkTalk HomeSafe
Sign into your TalkTalk account at account.talktalk.co.uk, select ‘Extras & offers’ from the menu at the top, then click Manage HomeSafe. Click the Off button in the Kids Safe section and confirm the decision to disable the content filter. You can also turn off Virus Alerts, if you’re confident that your security software offers sufficient protection.
Virgin Media Web Safe
Go to the My Apps section of your My Virgin Media account (myvirginmedia.com), select ‘Parental Controls with Virgin Media Web Safe’. Click Manage Web Safe and turn off Child Safe and, optionally, Virus Safe.
2 REPORT UNFAIR BLOCKING TO YOUR ISP
ISP filters work automatically by detecting blacklisted keywords and domains, so they sometimes block harmless sites that aren’t breaking any laws. The Open Rights Group (ORG) has a subsidiary site called Blocked (www.blocked.org.uk), which highlights several examples of mistakenly blocked sites including a craft watchmaker, a women’s clothing site and a Porsche retailer. Such ‘overblocking’ is more common than you’d think, with the ORG finding that one in five of the 100,000 most popular websites in the UK is blocked by at least one network.
If you own a website that’s suddenly being blocked, or you know of one that’s being unfairly censored, report it to your ISP and, hopefully, it will adjust its filters when informed that it’s made a mistake. Here are contact details for the main internet providers:
BT – categorisation@bt.com
EE – safeguard@ee.co.uk
Sky – CRSupport@bskyb.com
TalkTalk – homesafe.classification@talktalkplc.com
Virgin Media – websafefeedback@virginmedia.co.uk
You can also notify the ORG about unfair censorship to help it monitor overblocking, by emailing info@openrightsgroup.org
3 SWITCH TO A LESS POPULAR ISP
The court orders that restrict access to specific websites generally only apply to the five big ISPs (now four, since BT and EE have merged). If you’re frustrated by the blocks imposed by your current service, consider switching to a smaller broadband provider (with fewer than 400,000 customers) that isn’t affected by the legal rulings. ISPreview provides a comprehensive list of UK ISPs, complete with details of monthly fee, download and upload speeds, and data allowance, at www.ispreview.co.uk/isp_list.
Additionally, there are two ISPs that don’t use the IWF’s ‘voluntary’ blacklist to block websites: Andrews & Arnold (also known as AAISP, aaisp.net), whose owner calls government-imposed web censorship “the very definition of ‘nanny state’” (bit.ly/nanny390); and Zen Internet (www.zen.co.uk), which supports the IWF through financial membership, but doesn’t enforce its block list.
4 REPORT UNFAIR MOBILE BLOCKS TO THE BBFC
You’re probably familiar with the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC, www.bbfc.co.uk) for its age ratings for movies but, since 2013, it’s also had an influence on the content you can and can’t see on your phone. Although the BBFC doesn’t classify individual websites, it helps to ensure that the default filters applied by mobile networks aren’t too strict or too lenient by maintaining a ‘Classification Framework’. This is intended to stop users aged under 18 accessing content that includes sex, drugs, strong violence, self-harm and discrimination, though anyone who has sat near a group of teenagers on a bus may question its effectiveness!
Interestingly, mobile operators assume that you are under 18, unless you indicate otherwise, so if you find that many sites are blocked when you try to access them on your phone, you should contact your network to verify your age – this can usually be done by presenting your passport or making a credit or debit card payment. If your mobile provider refuses to remove a specific site from its content filter, you can appeal to the BBFC at bit.ly/bbfc390, which will resolve the complaint within five days. Research by the Open Rights Group and other campaigners has found that networks have unfairly blocked hundreds of websites, blogs and forums, including a pop-gossip site, a creative-writing blog, a tweet archive, a Sheffield church group and Shelf Appeal (shelfappeal.com) – “a blog about putting things on a shelf” (bit.ly/mobile390). You can find out whether your mobile provider is blocking a particular site by entering its URL at www.blocked.org.uk.
5 DISCOVER THE PAGES THAT GOOGLE HIDES
The EU’s ‘Right to be forgotten’ ruling in May 2014 has so far forced Google to remove more than 479,000 links from its search results, because their content could cause individuals to be “perpetually or periodically stigmatised as a consequence of a specific action performed in the past”. Google’s Transparency Report (bit.ly/transparency390) says it’s complied with around 42% of removal requests, and provides anonymised examples. The pages themselves remain online and uncensored, but without knowing their exact URL, finding them without the help of a search engine can prove impossible.
One way around this is to switch to the US version of Google, which isn’t affected by the ‘Right to be forgotten’ ruling. Go to www.google.com in your browser and you’ll probably be redirected to www.google.co.uk, so click the ‘Use Google.com’ link in the bottom-right corner – or just go to www.google.com/ncr to avoid redirection.
There are also several places you can view the URLs removed by Google, so you can access the original content. These include Hidden From Google (hiddenfromgoogle.com), which lists 30 examples; and a BBC blog post from last year (bit.ly/bbcblog390) that links to hundreds of BBC News articles that are now hidden from Google when you search for specific names. “To do anything else risks reducing transparency and damaging trust,” says a defiant Auntie Beeb.
6 UNBLOCK CENSORED CONTENT USING A VPN
Virtual private networks (VPNs) aren’t just a means of beating geographical restrictions (to watch US Netflix, for example), they’re also an effective way to unblock censored web content. VPNs use a different port to connect to the internet, so your ISP will be able to tell that you’re using one, but it won’t be able to see exactly what you are accessing. And VPNs are perfectly legal – many people rely on them for work – so your ISP won’t disconnect you. The upshot of this is that you can visit sites that you’re not officially allowed to in the UK, including those that have been censored by the courts, the government and/or your internet provider.
It’s true that some VPNs, especially free ones, slow down your connection, place a cap on the amount of data you can download and interrupt your browsing with ads. But if you only want to access one or two forbidden sites, we’d recommend the free versions of TunnelBear (www.tunnelbear.com) and CyberGhost (www.cyberghostvpn.com), both of which work on Windows, Mac OS X, Android and iOS, and offer reliable and reasonably fast download and upload speeds.
If you’re planning to use a VPN all the time, for unrestricted and anonymous web access, it’s worth upgrading to the paid-for versions of the aforementioned services or, our current favourite, F-Secure Freedome (bit.ly/freedome390). This costs £39.99 per year for use across three devices, and offers unlimited, speedy and secure bandwidth. It’s available for Windows, OS X, Android and iOS.
Note that browser-extension VPNs such as Hola (hola.org) may not encrypt your data, so your ISP could detect what you’re using them for.
7 WATCH VIDEOS THAT YOUTUBE CENSORS
According to the ‘Requests to remove content’ section of Google’s Transparency Report (bit.ly/govremove390), the company receives more government requests to remove content from YouTube than any of its other services (it is the third most popular website in the world). Google complies with around half of these requests – either for legal reasons or because a video violates its Community Guidelines (bit.ly/community390). Once a video has been deleted, there are a couple of tricks you can try to find and watch the censored content, although neither is guaranteed to succeed.
Even though a clip has been taken down from YouTube, it may still be hosted on a lower-profile video site that isn’t being so closely monitored by lawyers. Try Dailymotion (www.dailymotion.com), Metacafe (www.metacafe.com) or Videobash (www.videobash.com).
There’s also a chance that you can find a cached version of the video through the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine (web.archive.org) if you know its original URL. However, due to the volume of content on YouTube, this often only works with popular videos.
8 CHANGE YOUR DNS SERVER
Another way to bypass web filters is to switch from the DNS (Domain Name System) servers provided by your ISP to alternative DNS servers, such as those provided by Google Public DNS (bit.ly/googledns390). Potentially, this could gain you access to sites that are blocked in the UK, by making it seem as if you’re using a different IP address based abroad, but many internet providers are wise to the trick.
You can make the switch manually by entering the details provided by the DNS service, but it’s easier to use a dedicated tool such as QuickSetDNS (www.nirsoft.net). If it doesn’t work, you can easily switch back to your ISP’s default DNS servers.
9 USE THE TOR BROWSER
Tor (www.torproject.org) is widely regarded as the most secure way to browse the web and is an effective means of accessing content that has been unreasonably blocked in the UK. However, it’s also controversial because the anonymity offered by the browser has made it popular with criminals and other unsavoury types who use it to evade surveillance and hide their activities from the authorities.
Tor is available for Windows, OS X and Linux and, although it isn’t the simplest program to get started with, you’ll find extensive instructions and help on the website.
10 VIEW AREAS CENSORED IN GOOGLE MAPS
Google Maps and Earth provide an aerial view of most locations in the world, but there are plenty of notable exceptions. Sometimes this is due to glitches in the satellite imagery but, in other instances, individuals, businesses or governments have requested that their property be obscured from view. Check out the Huffington Post’s article ’24 Places Google Maps Doesn’t Want You To See’ (bit.ly/huffpo390) or News.com.au’s ‘Secret sites so classified they are pixelated by Google Earth’ (bit.ly/news390) for some fascinating examples.
Although there’s no way of revealing these mysteriously concealed areas in Google Maps, rival mapping service Bing Maps (www.bing.com/maps) uses its own aerial photography, which is often higher quality and – more importantly – uncensored. For example, in Google Maps the Volkel Airbase in the Netherlands is covered by a camouflage pattern, whereas in Bing Maps it’s completely visible. Perhaps the Dutch authorities didn’t think enough people used Bing for it to be a security concern!