Archives of Correspondence with Censorware Companies

All correspondence with the censorware companies was done through two pseudonymous HotMail accounts, "John Ventura" ([email protected]) and "Perry Click" ([email protected]).

We were able to get all six of the companies to block all four of the "bait" Web sites, with the following exceptions:

• SmartFilter did not respond to our email request to block either http://www.angelfire.com/mt/firstjohn1976/ or http://members.theglobe.com/plexicraft/, the FRC.org and Dr. Laura "bait" sites.
• WebSENSE did not respond to our email request to block http://members.theglobe.com/plexicraft/

When the time came to reveal that the "bait" sites were really composed of quotes from the conservative organizations' home pages, we did not tell the companies this directly; rather, we gave this information to a Wired reporter who contacted each of the companies about our project and used their responses for his article. (That is why there are no emails archived here from us to the blocking software companies, telling them what we did, and asking them if they would block the organizations' pages.) This was deliberate, since it gave the reporter a chance to get a candid response from the companies, as they heard about the project for the first time. (Because the results of our project put most of the blocking software companies in an awkward position, we were concerned that if we had emailed the companies with the news, they would have rejected all press calls until their public relations department had crafted a response allowing them to defuse the situation.)

Some of the companies responses, as recorded in the Wired article, are included below as part of their reaction.

After the article was published, we called and emailed the blocking software companies for a response -- specifically, to ask whether they would block the conservative organizations' home pages that were the sources of the anti-gay quotes, and if not, why not. We have not received any responses so far.

SurfWatch

Alexandra Salomon, director of content services for SurfWatch, said her company came across a similar problem with sites that excerpted Holocaust-related information for purposes of commentary.

She said Surfwatch's approach is subjective by design, and a decision about whether or not to block a site depends on what the overarching theme is. "It comes to what is the overall message that's being communicated in the whole of the site," Salomon said.

"We've tried to stay pretty tolerant in terms of organizations that exist in America, quite frankly because it's the whole marketplace of ideas. They're already so public on television and the Internet that blocking it on the Internet (doesn't do much)," she said.

Bess/N2H2

Cyber Patrol

Net Nanny

NetNanny representatives said that they would likely unblock the sites that their marketing coordinator, Amanda Geyer, had ruled in March and April to be off-limits.

"Based on what those words were, it doesn't constitute something that's dangerous to kids. Amanda does not have that authority to make that decision. That was an error," said NetNanny Vice President Nika Herford.

"A judgment call was made and I back up my employee for what we did. We need to make sure our process is a little more streamlined and a little more open," said Herford, who added that the open nature of the NetNanny list allows parents to review sites and delete entries.

Geyer said, however, that her company's process is very precise, and noted that NetNanny's list of off-limits sites is available for parents to peruse.

WebSENSE

Phil Hill, a spokesman for Websense, which claims over 5 million corporate users, said he would have to investigate why Tripod.com is blocked but Focus on the Family is not.

"I believe these two sites are categorized fairly correctly. The 'family' site does appear to be a very positive site with a religious theme," Websense officials said in an email. "The (Tripod) site's theme seems to be fairly negative about the lifestyle of homosexuality with strongly written quotes explaining the author's feelings. The hate/racism category fits here, however, after further review, we believe 'activist' is more appropriate."

When asked to explain why Websense treats smaller sites differently from large sites -- even if the content is excerpted -- Hill did not reply.

SmartFilter

"I can see why it would be called be called hate speech," said George Jelatis, senior technical architect at Secure Computing, which sells Smartfilter to corporations.

Referring to the second paragraph of Geocities' "Straight Talk on 'Gay Rights'", which is excerpted from a Concerned Women for America publication and says "the truth of the matter is that homosexuality is an immoral behavior that can be changed," Jelatis admitted that "there are people who would consider this (a) speech that would produce a hostile atmosphere in the workplace."

But Jelatis couldn't explain why the original document at Concerned Women for America was readily available to Smartfilter users.

"I'd have to go back and review the polices. But I think what you'd find that we do is that we don't necessarily take controversial sites where we get one request and make a very painful decision without discussing it. We look at is this coming in multiple times," Jelatis said.

But the Geocities site was never publicized, and only one Peacefire member -- using a pseudonym -- complained to Secure Computing about it.