Big Brother – Just Imagine
Big Brother is alive and well.
And I’m not talking about some crappy television program.
I’m talking George Orwell and 1984. He was 24 years out.
I checked a friend’s blog at Rantings Diversified.
Apparently, he has been blocked by Imagine.ie, so none of their clients can reach it without disabling a filter
I have a couple of questions I would like answered.
- Who gave Imagine permission to dictate what is appropriate on the Internet?
- What are their criteria for deeming a site inappropriate?
- Who gave them permission to block a site without the client’s consent?
I know the site that was blocked, and I know the bloke who writes it. He can be outspoken in his writings, but so can a lot of us. He was barred for this. [and I’m not taking the risk of being banned as well!!]
Is Imagine doing the American Government’s dirty work for them?
Did you contact Imagine and ask for an answer?
Ian – I didn’t [it being Sunday, and all]. I’m not a customer of theirs, nor would I want to be. Take a look at their Privacy Policy?
I might drop them a line tomorrow.
The Lie Clock
Paddy died and went to heaven. As he stood in front of St. Peter at the
Pearly Gates, he saw a huge wall of clocks behind him.. He asked, ‘What
are all those clocks?’
St. Peter answered, ‘Those are Lie-Clocks. Everyone on Earth has a
Lie-Clock. Every time you lie the hands on your clock will move.’
‘Oh,’ said the Paddy ‘Whose clock is that?’
‘That’s Mother Teresa’s. The hands have never moved, indicating that she
never told a lie.’
‘Incredible,’ said the Paddy.. ‘And whose clock is that one?’
St. Peter responded, ‘That’s Abraham Lincoln’s clock. The hands have
moved twice telling us that Abe told only two lies in his entire life.’
‘Where’s Bertie Aherne’s?’ asked the man.
‘Bertie’s clock is in God’s office. He’s using it as a fan
TT – There are quite a few jokes doing the rounds about Bertie. He’ll be sorely missed!
I just had a quick glance at their t&cs and nowhere does it say that they filter content. This is the closest I could find that may apply:
“4.1.2 for the transmission of any material which is, may be or is intended to be a hoax or is of a defamatory, offensive, abusive, obscene or menacing nature”
The only thing is that you are viewing it not transmitting it.
Bloody hell. They are an Internet service Provider not a police force. They should provide the means only for someone to access the net. What the customer decides to do there should be up to them.
Imagine the ESB ringing you up telling you that you can’t plug in your toaster because they say so?
Incidentially I thought you were with Irish Broadband?
Did you see their corporate partners and investor list? Its like a bloody spider web covering the planet.And i think Gods using Dubya’s clock as a second fan.
WTH…who gives someone the right to decide what I will read???? Grandad…who do I contact to tell them just how I feel about this? Unacceptable to treat any of us like we are 2 years old! Makes me want to read it even more, silly asshats!
The filter concerned was automatically provided (and pre-set), to another blogger when they changed IP providers. Whilst it’s a gross invasion of privacy and stymies the free speech that we love so much on the internet. It can be moderated by the user. It is indeed a worry that these perameters can be set by an IP rather than the user of the IP itself. I’d be changing providers in a heartbeat.
You know for the longest time AOL filtered what their clients could and could not see on the interwebicals. There are countries that filter content as well. China, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Iran and even Germany disallow content they don’t like.
Unforunately the film I linked to has been taken down by You Tube so I guess they filter content also. If anyone has a copy of the English version of ‘Fitna’ would you please send it to me so I can post it from MY SERVER .
By the way, I am enjoying being labeled as a Hate Monger.
Now I’ve got to figure out some kind of Hate Monger sign to put on my sites sidebar.
🙂
Sheesh. It’s a chilling video though. I think it’s something every one of us should see. Thanks.
First of all – and apology… I linked to the wrong video. I have since amended this.
I would like to contact Imagine to get their response, but am not a client of theirs, so they would probably just tell me to feck off.
If they did block the site, then it is a grave breach of their resoponsibilities as a service provider. They are there to provide the service and not block it according to their own sense of morality.
If, as Baino suggests, another customer blocked the site, and on reallocation of the IP, the blocking was transferred then it is an extremely shoddy way of doing business.
Sadly to say, I’m ancient enough to remember censorship in fiction. Books from Brindsley McNamara, John McGahern and Edna O’Brien were unavailable in Ireland. My brother (a priest) gave me ‘The Valley of the Squinting Windows’ by Brindsley McNamara, and The Dark. I had just turned sixteen and was amazed that he would discuss such diverse issues related to the books. It was all about having a choice, he told me.
Ireland and the world has changed, and with it the outlets we enjoy now through the Internet.
We must decide for ourselves what links we visit.
Censorship is not an option for the mature educated mind.
Sorry my lack of technical knowledge is showing . .I meant ISP Internet Service Provider not IP Internet Protocol (was recently corrected by a 21 year old Cawww)
Granny: That was the time when Seán Ó Faoláin called himself the Leader of the Banned.
@Brian, HateMonger, is it? I knew you were an evil Bush-apologist but I didn’t realise you’d taken the next step. Well done, man. Well done.
I’m going to weigh in here. I was the one who originally received the message when I switched my broadband provider.
Now I’d like to point out that Imagine have provided a child protection setting on the offchance that I’d have any sprogs using my internet. As it happens, I don’t, so for me it was an inconvenience more than anything else. I assume that Imagine tag certain phrases or videos or whatever as being unacceptable.
And perhaps it’s the LSD kicking in, but did Brian say he enjoys being labelled a hate-monger?
Brian – I was actually aware of that and I was aware that you could bypass it. What concerned me was that if Imagine defaulted to having the filter on, then what criteria did they use to ban sites?
You should know Brianf by now. He is STRANGE.