Definitions of "hate speech" used by censorware companies included in the study:
The following definitions were taken from the Web pages of the respective blocking software companies, and are current as of 5/21/2000. Only SmartFilter and WebSENSE use definitions of "hate speech" that do not explicitly mention sexual orientation.
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SurfWatch:
(from http://www1.surfwatch.com/about/body-filter-core.html)
Hate speech:
- sites advocating or inciting degradation or attack of specified populations or institutions based on associations such as religion, race, nationality, gender, age, disability, or sexual orientation
- sites which promote a political or social agenda which is supremacist in nature and exclusionary of others based on their race, religion, nationality, gender, age, disability, or sexual orientation
- Holocaust revision/denial sites
- coercion or recruitment for membership in a gang* or cult**
*A gang is defined as: a group whose primary activities are the commission of felonious criminal acts, which has a common name or identifying sign or symbol, and whose members individually or collectively engage in criminal activity in the name of the group.
**A cult is defined as: a group whose followers have been deceptively and manipulatively recruited and retained through undue influence such that followers' personalities and behavior are altered. Leadership is all-powerful, ideology is totalistic, and the will of the individual is subordinate to the group. Sets itself outside of society.
- Cyber Patrol:
(from http://www.cyberpatrol.com/cybernot/criteria.htm)
Pictures or text advocating prejudice or discrimination against any race, color, national origin, religion, disability or handicap, gender, or sexual orientation. Any picture or text that elevates one group over another. Also includes intolerant jokes or slurs.
- Net Nanny:
No published criteria.
- Bess:
(go to http://www.n2h2.com/products/bess/index.html then click on "Filtering Methods"; the server blocks visitors from loading sub-frame pages directly) Hate/Discrimination:
Advocating discrimination against others based on race, religion, gender, nationality, or sexual orientation.
- SmartFilter:
(from http://www1.securecomputing.com/index.cfm?skey=86#hs)
This category is dedicated to any sort of propaganda that encourages the oppression of a specific group of individuals, including such content as derogatory speech against women, minorities, and the disabled. Sites include:
Klu Klux Klan Page
Aryan Nations
National Socialist Movement
Did Six Million Really Die?
- WebSENSE:
(from http://www.websense.com/products/categories/cat_4.cfm)
Racism/Hate
Ethnic impropriety, hate speech, anti-Semitism, racial clubs/conflict.