TorrentFreak

The place where breaking news, BitTorrent and copyright collide

TorrentFreak Censored by Orange’s Child Protection Filter

censoredThe Internet is a scary place for kids, but luckily there’s censorship.

In the UK mobile networks have so-called “child protection filters” to deal with shady content, and in many cases these are turned on by default.

The filters block all sorts of nasty and offensive content, including TorrentFreak.

While we’re not banned by all providers the Open Rights Group informed us that Orange believes our site is not safe for kids.

Last week Open Rights Group addressed this issue in a report about ‘over-blocking,’ as it turns out that we’re not alone.

Those who have a Twitter account, please let @OrangeHelpers know that they’re going too far.

Update: Orange is going to review the case.

This post is from the News Bits section of TorrentFreak where we present stories from around the web in a concise summary format. Full TorrentFreak articles can be found here. If you have a tip please let us know. News Bits have their very own RSS feed
  • Captain Buzzoverinthehead DFC

    “The filters block ass sorts of nasty and offensive content” – nice Freudian slip there, Ernesto!

    • 3c905b-tx

      LOL!

    • http://torrentfreak.com/ Rob8urcakes

      I even had to look at my keyboard just to re-check how far away s is from l, and my right eyebrow involuntarily rose (never a good sign folks) as I entered a state of ‘proper’ thought trying to figure out what may have caused such a “non-typo”.

      But whilst I try to figure out such a vitally important issue, perhaps senior management at Orange have decided that any website journalists who make such heinously evil errors by composing news articles with letters so far apart on the keyboard that our children UK-wide must be protected from this clearly warped criminal who abuses the English language in such an uncaring and sociopathic manner.

      Maybe we should also campaign to bring back the Death Penalty too, huh?

    • AssBlock

      “The filters block ass” is a technically correct statement. 

      He should have added a comma rather than editing the word itself … 

      “The filters block ass, sorts of nasty and offensive content.”

    • Andrew Lee

      HAH!  You sir just won!

      Also just to be clear anyone that’s using Orange can you check something for me. Go to a few search engines and try to find the most fucked up content possible that gets by the filter.  I’m curious about the results and if I had access to it I would embarrass the hell out of ass of their asses! “Sry could not resist rofl”

  • roger

    It sounds like you’ve been contact with Orange. Have they explained why this clearly non adult-content site was blocked in the first place?

    • Danny

      If its anything like vodafone they operate a white list policy. So anything is blocked unless its white-listed, this basically blocks anything non-mainstream.

      • Gash

        Yeah – it will be.

        I wasn’t too fussed about having the filter on my phone until I realized you couldn’t actually use the internet until you opted out of it.

        Stuff like totally legit non-porn fine-for-everyone forums being ok, but as soon as you click on an actual post “This page has been blocked”.

        Just pop online or go to an Orange/Vodafone shop and ask them to make porn come on your phone.

        Dead simple. Much better. (Even if you hate porn and have no intention of ever looking at it…)

        (…Yeah, right.)

  • townie2

    yeah right Orange, must be all the pictures of kiddie porn here. Orange =idiots.

  • 3c905b-tx

    Can’t beat ‘em, censor ‘em!

    WOW! Fascist much?

  • http://www.twitter.com/echoman74 echoman

    Hey torrentfreak you’re also blocked by burger king wi-fi filter. I’ll have to get the info and send it to you. I also told them blocking you was wrong and that i’ll be sure to let the internet know and what happened to freedom of speech? They sent me back some bogus crap that not even an IT could understand. I have a screenshot on my phone. I might need to do another.

  • Mwhahaha

    Well, people do use bad language and talk an awful lot about killing movie executives, lawyers, the police, politicians and anyone who’s basically a bit richer than they are.

    Questions:

    Are they obliged to:
    a) let you know when they start blocking you?
    b) tell you why you are being blocked?

    Also: What are you legal rights to appeal against it if they remain steadfast in their decision to block the site?

    • Mwahahahah

      Maybe they should block Disqus then, Mr. Troll, rather than Torrentfreak itself. Problem solved.

  • Mwhahaha

    Orange’s not the only ISP…

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=694806849 Cameron Walker

    Blocking TorrentFreak is like blocking a news organisation, kinda pointless on a “protecting the user” kind of way and scarey in a censorship kind of way…

  • Pingback: Court Forbids Linking to Pirate Bay Proxies | Mediafire Search Engine

  • Krosis

    It’s just a bunch of text. 

  • Guest

    Once again, the crusade to “protect the children!” proves itself to be little more than a pretext to censor ideas.

  • Guest

    I guess it’s understandable, if you look a bit open about it to see what people may have against children on Torrentfreak would be … it releases news on pornography piracy (not bad considering it’s news but some may say otherwise) and secondly, it is a pro-piracy community … which some people may see as encouraging kids to do illegal activity online.

    Either way, I’m against them censoring it. Have you recieved a response from them or are just just assuming they blacklisted Torrentfreak? It could just be a keyword based filter and blocked the domain since it uses the word ‘torrent’.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Frank-White/100002970542124 Frank White

      I wouldn’t say they’re blatantly “pro” piracy, they might be sympathetic on many file-sharing issues, mainly shown by the types of articles they choose to run, but the news reporting itself on the whole is pretty objective. And actually I think they’re unintentionally at least partly responsible for getting a lot of sites taken down and exposed to a lot of legal problems: let’s face it, if they write about you or your site/service here it’s likely to get you all kinds of attention you don’t want. ;)

  • http://twitter.com/odishon odiSHon

    the “fun” part with these blacklists is that often no one knows why a link is on the blacklist.. and you will never ever get an answer because if YOU knew, there is an option to circumvent it.

    • http://gene-poole.tumblr.com Gene Poole

       I’m pretty sure we know why torrentfreak is on the blacklist. the autodetect of the term “torrent” caught it.

      Orange Communications seems proactive in their censorship efforts.

    • Bloaxor

      But think of the children!!

  • Pingback: File-Sharing Church Weds First Couple | Mediafire Search Engine

  • asdfth12

    Given some of the topics that we discuss (Porn) and some of the comments that are given as replies to any topic, I can understand and even support a block. 

    This site is supposed to promote a message about how sharing is caring, yet the numerous ‘Fuck everything’ comments that I see here do detract, a lot, from this message.

    • Eqhiangl

      Yeah, please don’t say “fuck, shit, ass” and stuff like that, because kids in the UK are pure, innocent souls that would never talk like that.

      O r’ly?

      • Blink128

        Probably shouldn’t say “Shit, piss, fuck, cunt, cock-sucker, Mother-fucker, tits, fart, turd, and twat” either, or you’ll get in trouble with Blink182′s copyright lawyers.

    • makes no sense

      Cause in the real world people never say shit ?
      Censorship is censorship.
      You want to censor your kids intake (responsible parenting) … your job.

      Why should I be blocked for you,  to let your kids run unsupervised on the net ?

      Let them out on the streets unsupervised too. Great parenting style.

  • Anonymous

     http://bit.ly/KpDKUP

  • Admiral Ackbar

    What the fuck is this fucking bullshit with Orangefuckerheads?

    • asdfth12

      This is a prime reason why I support them.

      We’re supposed to be a news site people, not a cheap ripoff of /b.

  • http://twitter.com/Mipnow Mipnow

    Blocked websites, circumvent/bypass them with the help of http://www.mipnow.com
    Check it out! Plus the hugest up to date TPB proxy guide, VPN provider guide, public DNS severs guide, custom Global search engine(search by country, zip, state, etc.) and can be cross-refereced with the 1 and only ISP Blacklist(Loggers,capper,throttlers), Bittorrent guides, tips and tricks, and much more…

  • Pingback: ZeroPaid.com | Best Seedbox

  • MB

    I’m a kid and the internet is not scary. FUCK CENSORSHIP. Damn parental controls are like SOPA only even easier to bypass.

  • BTGuard - BitTorrent Anonymously

NewsBits

Even more news...

  • The Pirate Bay Isn’t Down Completely, Just Having a Few Issues

    Twitter and Facebook, not to mention the TorrentFreak inbox, are currently alive with complaints that The...

  • Pirate Bay Founder Gottfrid Svartholm on Freedom of Speech

    Freedom of speech is a highly valued commodity, but should people be allowed to say whatever...

  • Blu-ray Anti-Piracy Tech Stops Discs and Promotes Purchases

    An anti-piracy system present in all official Blu-ray players since 2012 has received a fresh update...

  • Foxtel Breeds Pirates by Locking Up Game of Thrones

    One of the main reasons why people turn to piracy is the lack of legal alternatives....

  • UK Student Admits Breaching Sony Copyrights With Leak of PS3 SDK

    Last year an Internet user known as El Nomeo leaked version 3.70 of Sony’s Playstation3 SDK...

MostDiscussed

Below are TorrentFreak's most discussed articles of the past month. Join the discussion if you like.

CopyQuote

Left Quote

“The Pirate Bay has been one of the most important movements in Sweden for freedom of speech, working against corruption and censorship.

Peter Sunde Left Quote

PopularArticles

A selection of some TorrentFreak's classics dug up from our archives.