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Censorware: Difference between revisions
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Looney Toons (talk | contribs) (trope->useful notes) |
Looney Toons (talk | contribs) (copyedits) |
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''Can I do that myself?
''Make up my own mind
''Like anyone else.''
|[[Public Image Ltd]]}}
AKA "nannyware", "Internet filtering", "content-control software", and "blocking software".
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The least pernicious of these of programs act as automated [[Bluenose Bowdlerizer]]s, intercepting all Net traffic and dynamically "blanking out" any text they are programmed to detect as "offensive". Naturally, such filters tend to be stupidly literal and are unable to understand context. Thus they are prone to falling face-first into the [[Scunthorpe Problem]], and can end up censoring the most inoffensive webpages into incomprehensibility. And if the page so altered happens to be an input form, such as one used to create or revise wiki articles, the result can be the wholesale automated vandalization of the page's content. This is why evidence of censorware installed on an contributor's computer is one of the few things that can trigger an immediate temporary ban here at All The Tropes. However, if thoughtfully designed and implemented, simple text filtering can be relatively benign, with a low impact on the browsing experience. (It's still destructive of wiki content, though, and will still trigger an immediate tempban.)
The second level of functionality found in a large number of censorware programs is active filtering and blocking of entire websites. Theoretically, this is based solely on a determination that a site hosts content that is adult-themed, socially offensive, or illegal. However, as the website/organization [http://www.peacefire.org Peacefire] has made a point of demonstrating
Usually, second-stage censorware is not a problem for All The Tropes. Either we're blocked because someone connected to a filter's blacklist has decided we offend either their sensibilities or their politics (in which case you'll never get far enough to edit an article), or they let us through and we just have to deal with the first-level problem.
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