Concerns About Internet Censorship Spread from Montgomery County to Amtrak and then to Howard, Prince George's and Anne Arundel Counties
UPDATE: The technology and information crusaders at Techdirt have picked up on the Amtrak/MoCo censorship doubleheader!
This month, Maryland Juice readers blew the whistle on Internet censorship in Montgomery County government buildings. The story started with reports of the County (aka Chairman MoCo) blocking employees from visiting an environmental site (FUH2.com). That snowballed into reports of numerous pro-LGBT websites (ie: Victory Fund, Metro Weekly, Seattle Gay News, etc) and even a seniors community calendar being blocked.
The story took a turn for the strange, when I was riding an Amtrak train and tried to use their Wifi connection to verify that Montgomery County's blocked LGBT sites were not pornography. Amazingly, Amtrak apparently also decided to censor their (brand new) Internet connections from sites like Seattle Gay News and the UK newspaper, The Guardian. The doubleheader MoCo/Amtrak censorship post has quickly become the most-read post since we started Maryland Juice, drawing hundreds and hundreds of new readers this week.
We now hear that the ACLU is poking around at Chairman MoCo's practices, and the media is spreading the word about the defective web filters used by Montgomery County and Amtrak. Additionally, numerous young LGBT voices in Montgomery are suddenly contacting Maryland Juice about the need for more local organizing to defend the community. Details soon!
In the meantime, here is a quick round-up of the news coverage, starting with a TV clip from WJLA (ABC 7):
UPDATE: The technology and information crusaders at Techdirt have picked up on the Amtrak/MoCo censorship doubleheader!
This month, Maryland Juice readers blew the whistle on Internet censorship in Montgomery County government buildings. The story started with reports of the County (aka Chairman MoCo) blocking employees from visiting an environmental site (FUH2.com). That snowballed into reports of numerous pro-LGBT websites (ie: Victory Fund, Metro Weekly, Seattle Gay News, etc) and even a seniors community calendar being blocked.
The story took a turn for the strange, when I was riding an Amtrak train and tried to use their Wifi connection to verify that Montgomery County's blocked LGBT sites were not pornography. Amazingly, Amtrak apparently also decided to censor their (brand new) Internet connections from sites like Seattle Gay News and the UK newspaper, The Guardian. The doubleheader MoCo/Amtrak censorship post has quickly become the most-read post since we started Maryland Juice, drawing hundreds and hundreds of new readers this week.
We now hear that the ACLU is poking around at Chairman MoCo's practices, and the media is spreading the word about the defective web filters used by Montgomery County and Amtrak. Additionally, numerous young LGBT voices in Montgomery are suddenly contacting Maryland Juice about the need for more local organizing to defend the community. Details soon!
In the meantime, here is a quick round-up of the news coverage, starting with a TV clip from WJLA (ABC 7):
