Archive

Archives of Correspondence with Censorware Companies

All correspondence with the censorware companies was done through two pseudonymous HotMail accounts, "John Ventura" (moncapitan35@hotmail.com) and "Perry Click" (perryclick@hotmail.com).

We were able to get all six of the companies to block all four of the "bait" Web sites, with the following exceptions:

When the time came to reveal that the "bait" sites were really composed of quotes from the conservative organizations' home pages, we did not tell the companies this directly; rather, we gave this information to a Wired reporter who contacted each of the companies about our project and used their responses for his article. (That is why there are no emails archived here from us to the blocking software companies, telling them what we did, and asking them if they would block the organizations' pages.) This was deliberate, since it gave the reporter a chance to get a candid response from the companies, as they heard about the project for the first time. (Because the results of our project put most of the blocking software companies in an awkward position, we were concerned that if we had emailed the companies with the news, they would have rejected all press calls until their public relations department had crafted a response allowing them to defuse the situation.)

Some of the companies responses, as recorded in the Wired article, are included below as part of their reaction.

After the article was published, we called and emailed the blocking software companies for a response -- specifically, to ask whether they would block the conservative organizations' home pages that were the sources of the anti-gay quotes, and if not, why not. We have not received any responses so far.

SurfWatch

"John Ventura" to SurfWatch, 3/24/2000, requesting that the site http://members.tripod.com/bryan_cody/ be blocked as a hate site.
SurfWatch's response to "John Ventura", 3/24/2000, acknowledging the site block request.
SurfWatch's message to "John Ventura", 3/30/2000, stating that the site http://members.tripod.com/bryan_cody/ was now blocked in the "hate" category.

"John Ventura" to SurfWatch, 4/19/2000, requesting that the site http://www.geocities.com/terence_mason/ be blocked in the "hate" category.
SurfWatch to "John Ventura", 4/19/2000, acknowledging the request to block the site.
We never received any further confirmation by email about whether the site http://www.geocities.com/terence_mason/ would be blocked, but we checked on 5/1/2000 using SurfWatch's online "Test A Site" form and verified that the site had been blocked by SurfWatch in their hate site category.

"John Ventura" to SurfWatch, 4/28/2000, requesting that the sites http://www.angelfire.com/mt/firstjohn1976/ and http://members.theglobe.com/plexicraft/ be blocked as "hate sites".
SurfWatch's response to "John Ventura", 4/28/2000, agreeing to block both of the submitted sites.

According to the Wired article published on 5/27/2000, SurfWatch responded to the news as follows:
Alexandra Salomon, director of content services for SurfWatch, said her company came across a similar problem with sites that excerpted Holocaust-related information for purposes of commentary.

She said Surfwatch's approach is subjective by design, and a decision about whether or not to block a site depends on what the overarching theme is. "It comes to what is the overall message that's being communicated in the whole of the site," Salomon said.

"We've tried to stay pretty tolerant in terms of organizations that exist in America, quite frankly because it's the whole marketplace of ideas. They're already so public on television and the Internet that blocking it on the Internet (doesn't do much)," she said.
(http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,36621,00.html)

As of 6/1/2000, phone calls from us to SurfWatch, asking whether they will block the original sources of the quotes at http://www.frc.org/, http://www.family.org/, http://www.cwfa.org/, and http://www.drlaura.com/ have not yet been answered.

Bess/N2H2

"John Ventura" to N2H2, 2/29/2000, requesting that the site http://members.tripod.com/bryan_cody/ be blocked in their "Hate/Intolerance" category.
N2H2's autoresponse to "John Ventura", 2/29/2000, acknowledging the request.
N2H2's message to "John Ventura", 3/3/2000, reporting that http://members.tripod.com/bryan_cody/ had been added to ther "Hate/Intolerance" category.

"John Ventura" to N2H2, 3/12/2000, requesting that the site http://www.angelfire.com/mt/firstjohn1976/ be blocked in their "Hate/Intolerance" category.
N2H2's autoresponse to "John Ventura", 3/12/2000, acknowledging the site block request.
N2H2's response to "John Ventura", 3/17/2000, saying that the site http://www.angelfire.com/mt/firstjohn1976/ was now blocked as a "hate site".

"Perry Click" to N2H2, 3/12/2000, requesting that the site http://www.geocities.com/terence_mason/ be blocked as a "hate site".
N2H2's autoresponse to "Perry Click", 3/12/2000, acknowledging the request to block the site.
N2H2 to "Perry Click", 3/17/2000, saying that the site http://www.geocities.com/terence_mason/ would be added to the "hate site" list.

"Perry Click" to N2H2, 3/24/2000, requesting that the site http://members.theglobe.com/plexicraft/ be blocked as a "hate site".
N2H2's autoresponse to Perry Click, 3/24/2000, acknowledging the site block request.
N2H2 to Perry Click, 4/1/2000, stating that the site http://members.theglobe.com/plexicraft/ had been added to their "hate site" list.

Bess could not be reached in time to be quoted in the 5/27 Wired article describing the companies' reaction to "Project Bait And Switch".

As of 6/1/2000, phone calls from us to Bess, asking whether they will block the original sources of the quotes at http://www.frc.org/, http://www.family.org/, http://www.cwfa.org/, and http://www.drlaura.com/ have not yet been answered.

Cyber Patrol

On 2/29/2000, a request was submitted via Cyber Patrol's online "site block request" form to block the site http://members.tripod.com/bryan_cody/ as a "hate site". The text of the request is here.
Cyber Patrol's autoresponse to "John Ventura", 2/29/2000, acknowledging the site block request.
"John Ventura" to Cyber Patrol, 3/8/2000, asking if the URL http://members.tripod.com/bryan_cody/ was going to get blocked. (Idiotically, I accidentally signed this message "Bennett", but nobody at Cyber Patrol noticed this.)
Cyber Patrol's message to "John Ventura", 3/8/2000, saying that the site http://members.tripod.com/bryan_cody/ was now blocked as a "hate site".
(After that, I never used the "John Ventura" address (moncapitan35@hotmail.com) to communicate with Cyber Patrol again, in case they ever went back and noticed that the last message from "John Ventura" had been signed "Bennett".)

"Perry Click" to Cyber Patrol, 3/12/2000, requesting that the site http://www.geocities.com/terence_mason/ be blocked as a "hate site".
"Perry Click" to Cyber Patrol, 3/25/2000, re-requesting that the site http://www.geocities.com/terence_mason/ be blocked as a "hate site", after getting no response to the first request.
Cyber Patrol to "Perry Click", 3/27/2000, saying that the site would be reviewed and a decision would be made in a few days.
We never received an email response to the request to block the http://www.geocities.com/terence_mason/ site, but we checked Cyber Patrol's online "test a site" form on 4/1/2000 and found that the URL http://www.geocities.com/terence_mason/ had been blocked.

"Perry Click" to Cyber Patrol, 4/19/2000, requesting that the site http://www.angelfire.com/mt/firstjohn1976/ be blocked as a "hate site".
"Perry Click" to Cyber Patrol, 5/6/2000, re-requesting that the site http://www.angelfire.com/mt/firstjohn1976/ be blocked as a "hate site".
Cyber Patrol to "Perry Click", 5/8/2000, saying that the site http://www.angelfire.com/mt/firstjohn1976/ would be blocked in the next update of the CyberNOT list.

"Perry Click's" second message to Cyber Patrol sent on 4/19/2000, requesting that the site http://members.theglobe.com/plexicraft/ be blocked as a "hate site".
Cyber Patrol to "Perry Click", 4/24/2000, acknowledging the request and saying that a decision would be made in a few days about whether to block the site.
We never received a response from Cyber Patrol about whether the URL http://members.theglobe.com/plexicraft/ would be blocked, but we checked Cyber Patrol's online "test a site" form on 5/1/2000 and found that the URL http://members.theglobe.com/plexicraft/ had been blocked.

Cyber Patrol could not be reached in time to be quoted in the 5/27 Wired article describing the companies' reaction to "Project Bait And Switch".

As of 6/1/2000, emails from us to Cyber Patrol, asking whether they will block the original sources of the quotes at http://www.frc.org/, http://www.family.org/, http://www.cwfa.org/, and http://www.drlaura.com/ have not yet been answered.

Net Nanny

"John Ventura" to Net Nanny, 3/24/2000, requesting that the site http://members.tripod.com/bryan_cody/ be blocked as a "Hate Literature" site.
Net Nanny to "John Ventura", 3/27/2000, saying that the site http://members.tripod.com/bryan_cody/ would be blocked.

"John Ventura" to Net Nanny, 3/28/2000, requesting that the site http://www.geocities.com/terence_mason/ be blocked as a "Hate Literature" site.
Net Nanny to "John Ventura", 4/13/2000, responding that the site http://members.tripod.com/bryan_cody/ had been added to the block list.

"John Ventura" to Net Nanny, 4/19/2000, requesting that the two sites http://www.angelfire.com/mt/firstjohn1976/ and http://members.theglobe.com/plexicraft/ be blocked as "Hate Literature" sites.
Net Nanny to "John Ventura", 4/19/2000, stating that the two requested sites were now on their list.

According to the Wired article published on 5/27/2000, Net Nanny responded to the news as follows:
NetNanny representatives said that they would likely unblock the sites that their marketing coordinator, Amanda Geyer, had ruled in March and April to be off-limits.

"Based on what those words were, it doesn't constitute something that's dangerous to kids. Amanda does not have that authority to make that decision. That was an error," said NetNanny Vice President Nika Herford.

"A judgment call was made and I back up my employee for what we did. We need to make sure our process is a little more streamlined and a little more open," said Herford, who added that the open nature of the NetNanny list allows parents to review sites and delete entries.

Geyer said, however, that her company's process is very precise, and noted that NetNanny's list of off-limits sites is available for parents to peruse.
(http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,36621,00.html)

As of 6/1/2000, Net Nanny's public relations spokesperson has not responded to our emails requesting clarification of whether http://www.frc.org/, http://www.family.org/, http://www.cwfa.org/, or http://www.drlaura.com/ would be blocked by Net Nanny. Nika Herford, Net Nanny's VP of Public Affairs and Media, did agree to appear on David Lawrence's Online Tonight radio show with me (Bennett) to discuss "Project Bait And Switch" on 5/31/2000, but every time I was about to ask whether Net Nanny was going to block those sites, we had to go to a commercial.

WebSENSE

On 2/29/2000, we submitted the site http://members.tripod.com/bryan_cody/ to be blocked, using WebSENSE's online site submission form, and adding these comments.
WebSENSE's autoresponse message to "John Ventura", 2/29/2000, acknowledging the request.
WebSENSE's second message to "John Ventura", 2/29/2000, acknowledging the site block request.
"John Ventura" to WebSENSE, 3/11/2000, asking about the status of the decision to block http://members.tripod.com/bryan_cody/.
WebSENSE's autoresponse to "John Ventura", 3/11/2000, acknowleding the site block request.
WebSENSE's response to "John Ventura", 3/12/2000, responding that the URL http://members.tripod.com/bryan_cody/ had been added to the blocking database on 2/29/2000 under the "Racism/Hate" category.

"John Ventura" to WebSENSE, 4/19/2000, requesting that the sites http://www.geocities.com/terence_mason/ and http://www.angelfire.com/mt/firstjohn1976/ be blocked in the "Racism/Hate" category.
WebSENSE to "John Ventura", 4/19/2000, saying that the two URL's would be added under the "Racism/Hate" category.

According to the Wired article published on 5/27/2000, a WebSENSE representative responded to the news as follows:
Phil Hill, a spokesman for Websense, which claims over 5 million corporate users, said he would have to investigate why Tripod.com is blocked but Focus on the Family is not.

"I believe these two sites are categorized fairly correctly. The 'family' site does appear to be a very positive site with a religious theme," Websense officials said in an email. "The (Tripod) site's theme seems to be fairly negative about the lifestyle of homosexuality with strongly written quotes explaining the author's feelings. The hate/racism category fits here, however, after further review, we believe 'activist' is more appropriate."

When asked to explain why Websense treats smaller sites differently from large sites -- even if the content is excerpted -- Hill did not reply.
(http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,36621,00.html)

As of 6/1/2000, emails from us to WebSENSE, asking whether they will block the original sources of the quotes at http://www.frc.org/, http://www.family.org/, http://www.cwfa.org/, and http://www.drlaura.com/ have not yet been answered.

SmartFilter

"John Ventura" to SmartFilter, 2/29/2000, requesting that the site http://members.tripod.com/bryan_cody/ be blocked under their "Hate Speech" category.
SmartFilter to "John Ventura", 2/29/2000, acknowledging the request to block the http://members.tripod.com/bryan_cody/ site.
"John Ventura" to SmartFilter, 3/12/2000, asking whether SmartFilter had decided to block http://members.tripod.com/bryan_cody/ or not.
SmartFilter's response to "John Ventura", 3/13/2000, acknowledging the request.
SmartFilter's message to "John Ventura", 3/16/2000, saying that the site http://members.tripod.com/bryan_cody/ would be blocked. Interestingly, the message states that the review staff had looked at the page once and decided not to block it, which was why there had been no response to "John Ventura's" original inquiry, but after receiving the follow-up message from "John Ventura", the review staff decided to block the site.

"Perry Click" to SmartFilter, 3/25/2000, requesting that the site http://www.geocities.com/terence_mason/ be blocked as a "hate site".
SmartFilter to "Perry Click", 4/20/2000, agreeing to block the site http://www.geocities.com/terence_mason/ in their "hate site" category.

According to the Wired article published on 5/27/2000, a SmartFilter representative responded to the news as follows:
"I can see why it would be called be called hate speech," said George Jelatis, senior technical architect at Secure Computing, which sells Smartfilter to corporations.

Referring to the second paragraph of Geocities' "Straight Talk on 'Gay Rights'", which is excerpted from a Concerned Women for America publication and says "the truth of the matter is that homosexuality is an immoral behavior that can be changed," Jelatis admitted that "there are people who would consider this (a) speech that would produce a hostile atmosphere in the workplace."

But Jelatis couldn't explain why the original document at Concerned Women for America was readily available to Smartfilter users.

"I'd have to go back and review the polices. But I think what you'd find that we do is that we don't necessarily take controversial sites where we get one request and make a very painful decision without discussing it. We look at is this coming in multiple times," Jelatis said.

But the Geocities site was never publicized, and only one Peacefire member -- using a pseudonym -- complained to Secure Computing about it.
(http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,36621,00.html)

As of 6/1/2000, emails from us to SmartFilter, asking whether they will block the original sources of the quotes at http://www.frc.org/, http://www.family.org/, http://www.cwfa.org/, and http://www.drlaura.com/ have not yet been answered.