Kez
16th June 2002, 13:22
TO WW READERS: IS THIS PORNOGRAPHY?
By Leslie Feinberg
Brave student Matthew Schwartz recently struck a blow for
cyber-liberties when he won the unblocking of the Workers
World web site at the computer lab in his Plainview, N.Y.,
high school. ("Student Power," Workers World, June 6, 2002)
The revolutionary site had been red-flagged as unsuitable
for youth because it was, allegedly, "pornographic." Not
true. Workers World is fiercely opposed to the exploitation
of bodies and minds--in any form--for someone else's
lucrative profit margin. The many tentacles of the sex
industry, like every other capitalist mega-business, exploit
the bodies and labor of millions and millions of workers in
the United States and around the world--in work that is
often dangerous and degrading and vulnerable to police
violence and imprisonment.
Workers World newspaper is fiercely anti-capitalist and pro-
worker. We seek to replace the private ownership of large-
scale industry, where individuals chase after profits, with
socialized ownership and planning to meet human needs and
desires. Those who devote their lives to birthing a better
world, a socialist world, look forward to the day when the
nexus of sex is attraction, not compulsion, and pleasure,
not the Almighty Dollar, is its reward.
Our subscribers know that we don't use titillation or sexual
innuendo to grab readers--as do 95 percent of the capitalist
media, especially in advertising.
SO HOW CAN WORKERS WORLD BE LABELED PORNOGRAPHIC?
Workers World newspaper is for the liberation of women and
all who face discrimination and violence because of their
sex, gender or sexuality. It makes no bones about its
support for lesbian, gay, trans and bisexual liberation. So
those four words are purposely among its web site keywords.
That's what made the censors in cyberspace try to keep a
youth from viewing the socialist web site.
Congress passed legislation in December 2000 requiring
schools and libraries dependent on federal funds to employ
blocking software programs on Internet terminals. The law
requires use of "a specific technology that blocks or
filters Internet access"--like over-the-counter filtering
software programs N2H2, Cyber Patrol, Websense and
Smartfilter.
The software, or a pre-filtering provider, is as subtle as a
sledgehammer. It blocks sites that use certain keywords. A
woman searching the information highway for breast cancer
information, for example, could run into a roadblock: denied
access to medical sites because the word "breast" is deemed
sexual.
The list of "objectionable" words is often profoundly
political, including information on abortion availability.
All too often it's the local City Council or the town's
Christian businessmen's association or some other "good ol'
boys" network that exerts inexorable pressure to prohibit
anyone from reading material on the information highway that
includes the words lesbian, trans, bisexual or gay. In
reality, they are promoting a right-wing agenda of
censorship and repression.
Sexually explicit material is ubiquitous on the Internet.
The sex industry, like every other mega-billion-dollar
sector of capitalist commerce, is flourishing in cyberspace,
where virtual anonymity appeals to desire, and to shame,
with the lure of a carnival huckster.
The words used as bait to hook people to these sites are
tactile and descriptive at best; crude, lewd and brutally
graphic at worst. Does anyone really believe that software
is out there screening out sites that contain words like
"girls," "wild" and "hot"?
Interdiction against any use of the words lesbian, bisexual,
gay, transgender and transsexual doesn't protect young
people from age-inappropriate sexual sites. Instead, it
isolates youth and adults who might fit these self-
identifications from factual information, community support,
resources, self-awareness and pride.
The American Civil Liberties Union won a federal court
ruling on May 31 that the government had gone too far with
this censorship that forces libraries to "filter" what
adults and youth can read on the Internet. "The court today
barred the government from turning libraries into thought
police armed with clumsy blocking programs," said Ann
Beeson, litigation director of the ACLU's Technology and
Liberty Program. That program, along with the ACLU of
Pennsylvania and other rights groups, had challenged the
law.
The findings confirmed that the broad brush of software
censors whites out "at least tens of thousands" of web
pages.
That round was won within the legal boxing ring.
And Matthew Schwartz scored another impressive TKO. He
wasn't going to take it sitting down--at his computer
monitor, that is. He stood up and fought back. He threatened
to take his school administration to court and "sue them for
all they're worth" to secure his right to read Workers World
newspaper online. And when the principal's office learned
that he was ready to rumble, the web site was swiftly
unlocked. Are other Workers World readers ready to put this
legal victory to the test in your schools, libraries and
work places?
This is ongoing. The battle against censorship is woven with
a thousand filaments to the movement against domestic spying
and state repression by Big Brother Ashcroft, Bush and
Company. That's why Workers World newspaper will be there,
on the front lines, when protesters converge on the FBI
headquarters in Washington, D.C., on June 29.
Want more news about all these raging struggles? Read
Workers World online: www.workers.org.
Comrade Kamo
By Leslie Feinberg
Brave student Matthew Schwartz recently struck a blow for
cyber-liberties when he won the unblocking of the Workers
World web site at the computer lab in his Plainview, N.Y.,
high school. ("Student Power," Workers World, June 6, 2002)
The revolutionary site had been red-flagged as unsuitable
for youth because it was, allegedly, "pornographic." Not
true. Workers World is fiercely opposed to the exploitation
of bodies and minds--in any form--for someone else's
lucrative profit margin. The many tentacles of the sex
industry, like every other capitalist mega-business, exploit
the bodies and labor of millions and millions of workers in
the United States and around the world--in work that is
often dangerous and degrading and vulnerable to police
violence and imprisonment.
Workers World newspaper is fiercely anti-capitalist and pro-
worker. We seek to replace the private ownership of large-
scale industry, where individuals chase after profits, with
socialized ownership and planning to meet human needs and
desires. Those who devote their lives to birthing a better
world, a socialist world, look forward to the day when the
nexus of sex is attraction, not compulsion, and pleasure,
not the Almighty Dollar, is its reward.
Our subscribers know that we don't use titillation or sexual
innuendo to grab readers--as do 95 percent of the capitalist
media, especially in advertising.
SO HOW CAN WORKERS WORLD BE LABELED PORNOGRAPHIC?
Workers World newspaper is for the liberation of women and
all who face discrimination and violence because of their
sex, gender or sexuality. It makes no bones about its
support for lesbian, gay, trans and bisexual liberation. So
those four words are purposely among its web site keywords.
That's what made the censors in cyberspace try to keep a
youth from viewing the socialist web site.
Congress passed legislation in December 2000 requiring
schools and libraries dependent on federal funds to employ
blocking software programs on Internet terminals. The law
requires use of "a specific technology that blocks or
filters Internet access"--like over-the-counter filtering
software programs N2H2, Cyber Patrol, Websense and
Smartfilter.
The software, or a pre-filtering provider, is as subtle as a
sledgehammer. It blocks sites that use certain keywords. A
woman searching the information highway for breast cancer
information, for example, could run into a roadblock: denied
access to medical sites because the word "breast" is deemed
sexual.
The list of "objectionable" words is often profoundly
political, including information on abortion availability.
All too often it's the local City Council or the town's
Christian businessmen's association or some other "good ol'
boys" network that exerts inexorable pressure to prohibit
anyone from reading material on the information highway that
includes the words lesbian, trans, bisexual or gay. In
reality, they are promoting a right-wing agenda of
censorship and repression.
Sexually explicit material is ubiquitous on the Internet.
The sex industry, like every other mega-billion-dollar
sector of capitalist commerce, is flourishing in cyberspace,
where virtual anonymity appeals to desire, and to shame,
with the lure of a carnival huckster.
The words used as bait to hook people to these sites are
tactile and descriptive at best; crude, lewd and brutally
graphic at worst. Does anyone really believe that software
is out there screening out sites that contain words like
"girls," "wild" and "hot"?
Interdiction against any use of the words lesbian, bisexual,
gay, transgender and transsexual doesn't protect young
people from age-inappropriate sexual sites. Instead, it
isolates youth and adults who might fit these self-
identifications from factual information, community support,
resources, self-awareness and pride.
The American Civil Liberties Union won a federal court
ruling on May 31 that the government had gone too far with
this censorship that forces libraries to "filter" what
adults and youth can read on the Internet. "The court today
barred the government from turning libraries into thought
police armed with clumsy blocking programs," said Ann
Beeson, litigation director of the ACLU's Technology and
Liberty Program. That program, along with the ACLU of
Pennsylvania and other rights groups, had challenged the
law.
The findings confirmed that the broad brush of software
censors whites out "at least tens of thousands" of web
pages.
That round was won within the legal boxing ring.
And Matthew Schwartz scored another impressive TKO. He
wasn't going to take it sitting down--at his computer
monitor, that is. He stood up and fought back. He threatened
to take his school administration to court and "sue them for
all they're worth" to secure his right to read Workers World
newspaper online. And when the principal's office learned
that he was ready to rumble, the web site was swiftly
unlocked. Are other Workers World readers ready to put this
legal victory to the test in your schools, libraries and
work places?
This is ongoing. The battle against censorship is woven with
a thousand filaments to the movement against domestic spying
and state repression by Big Brother Ashcroft, Bush and
Company. That's why Workers World newspaper will be there,
on the front lines, when protesters converge on the FBI
headquarters in Washington, D.C., on June 29.
Want more news about all these raging struggles? Read
Workers World online: www.workers.org.
Comrade Kamo