Free Nationwide Wi-Fi Network To Censor Political Websites

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet
Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Both individual proposals to roll out free nationwide wi-fi Internet access across the United States contain language indicating that political websites deemed “offensive” will be filtered out and blocked.

Two competing parties, M2Z Networks and the FCC, are jockeying for the rights to roll out the network, but both have already stated their intent to install filters that block out pornography and anything else deemed “harmful”.

The implementation of a universal wi-fi network covering the entire country is moving closer following the approval of House Representatives Anna Eshoo and Edward Markey after it was discovered the network would not interfere with incumbent wireless telcos such as AT&T and Verizon, who had raised concerns over potential signal interference.

Two competing parties, M2Z Networks and the FCC, are jockeying for the rights to roll out the network, but both have already stated their intent to install filters that block out pornography and anything else deemed “harmful”.

According to a Daily Tech report, “Both proposals stipulate that any free wireless offerings have mandatory content filters, preventing users from viewing any material that “would be harmful to teens and adolescents,” including pornography and anything “contemporary community standards” deem as obscene. Free-speech advocates call this condition unconstitutional.”

As we have previously reported, similar free wi-fi networks on smaller scales include mandatory content filters that screen out even mildly political websites that are not part of the corporate establishment media.

• A d v e r t i s e m e n t

London’s St. Pancras International free wi-fi network blocks a barrage of alternative political websites, as we found out earlier this year when our own sites were inaccessible on the network.

“If you follow the logic of the rule, the network would have to block the news because a great deal of it discusses disturbing events or depicts these events through photographs and video clips,” reports ABC News, adding that blogs, social networks and any other user generated content would be excluded entirely from the network.

• A d v e r t i s e m e n t

“If the FCC insists on tying the creation of a free nationwide broadband wireless network to government mandated censorship, the constitutionality of the plan will surely be challenged in court and will be struck down,” states the report.

However, if the rollout of a nationwide network is privatized then what is to stop the company from installing filters that censor political websites? This is already the case in major transport hubs across the west as free speech and anything that goes against the establishment grain is classified as “hateful” and is banned.

This article was posted: Wednesday, October 15, 2008 at 9:43 am

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