You will have to go to my blog at:
http://timlambert.org/2003/07#0726
if you want to see or follow any of the links in my post below:
Vladimir Kushnir describes how Symantec's censorware blocks access to
many pro-gun websites such as nra.org, under the category 'Weapons'. I
checked, and he has accurately described which sites are
blocked. (Though the Lott site that is blocked is actually a
collection of Lott's articles--Lott's own site is not blocked.) I
agree with Kushnir that most people would not expect 'Weapons'
(blocked by default) would block access to sites like gunscholar.com.
Kushnir also found that many more pro-gun sites were blocked than
pro-control sites. I found that 13 of Google Directory's 48 Pro-Gun
Rights sites were blocked by the 'Weapons' category, while only 5 of
the 78 sites in Google's so called Anti-Gun Rights sites were
blocked. There certainly seems to be some bias against pro-gun sites
here. Kushnir believes that this
could only be achieved as a result of a conscious effort to block
conservative websites, dedicated to the protection of the
Constitution, while not blocking the liberal ones.
I don't think this is correct. They do block some pro-control sites
and the pattern observed could be the result of unconscious bias on
the part of the employees selecting sites, or that pro-gun sites are
more likely to be submitted for blocking.
In any event, I don't think any of the sites should be blocked (and
perhaps the NRA and VPC can agree on something here--they are both
blocked). But then, I think the whole idea of censorware is a bad
idea.
--
Tim
