The Honorable Ted Stevens
522 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510-0201
Re: Mandatory Internet Blocking in Labor, HHS, and Education Appropriations (H.R. 4577)
Dear Senator Stevens:
We are writing to urge you to reject the provisions of H.R. 4577 requiring Internet blocking and filtering in public libraries and public schools receiving federal funds. Mandatory Internet blocking violates the First Amendment, and denies students and library patrons access to unobjectionable material. For these reasons, mandatory blocking was rejected by the very Commission Congress created to advise it on ways to to shield children from harmful material on the Internet.
We realize you were a co-sponsor of Senator McCain's Internet blocking bill (S. 97) and voted for Senator Santorum's Internet blocking amendment during floor action. However, the version of this legislation appearing in H.R. 4577 is more far-reaching than any of the individual amendments adopted on the floor, and involves more than just the Universal Service Fund. The end result is a bureaucratic nightmare for schools and public libraries. Each school or library may be subject to different funding requirements and different regulations for each funding agency.
Congress established the bipartisan COPA Comission to review the current technology, including Internet filters, and recommend to Congress methods for shielding children from harmful material on the Internet. The Commisssion listened to much testimony and reviewed many documents. It presented its report to Congress this October. It specifically rejected mandatory filtering and blocking. The Commission found that "This technology raises First Amendment concerns because of its potential to be over-inclusive in blocking content. Concerns are increased because the extent of blocking is often unclear and not disclosed." To implement mandatory blocking ignores the concerns of the Commission Congress chose to create.
The software used to block information continues to be over-broad, blocking content that adults and children have a right to see. In a report dated October, 2000, entitled "Mandated Mediocrity: Blocking Software Gets a Failing Grade," the Electronic Privacy Information Center and Peacefire found one widely used product 1 blocked many political and educational web pages. Those pages included the Campaign Finance Reform Links, Campaign Finance Reform Talking Points, the Traditional Values Coalition, and How a Bill Becomes Law (a lesson plan for teachers).
In a report entitled "Blind Ballots: Web Sites of U.S. Political Candidates Censored by Censorware," (November 7, 2000), Peacefire tested the two most popular blocking software titles.2 The report found numerous examples of political candidates' websites blocked, including Congressman Ed Markey. Republican Jeffery Pollock, then a candidate for the 3rd Congressional District seat in Oregon, was a proponent of mandatory Internet blocking, until he found out his web site was blocked by Internet blocking software. He exclaimed, I just went back to my website to re-read what I wrote [about Internet blocking] nine months ago. That will be gone. I am incensed with what is going on here."
Even House Majority Leader Richard "Dick" Armey found his Freedom Works web site blocked, presumably because he used the word "dick." 3
By its overbreadth in blocking, this software hits parituclarly hard those small communities that rely upon their local schools and libraries for Internet access. Alaska has many such communities. Those who wish to access these political sites and gain more information about candidates and their government are stymied. Only those able to afford their own computers with unblocked access will be able to view these sites.
Mandatory blocking is a bad idea, and is not even supported by the independent Commission Congress established to review such matters. We urge you to reject this ill-advised provision of the Labor, HHS, and Education appropriations bill by omitting the provision from the conference report on the bill.
FOOTNOTES
1.N2H2's Bess. According to N2H2, their software products are in use in 17,000 schools, which is over forty percent of all U.S. schools, affecting over 13 million students.
2.N2H2's Bess and Cyber Patrol.
3. See the Wired article at:
Related Issues
Stay informed
Sign up to be the first to hear about how to take action.
By completing this form, I agree to receive occasional emails per the terms of the ACLU's privacy statement.
By completing this form, I agree to receive occasional emails per the terms of the ACLU's privacy statement.