A British reader left this comment early this morning:
I’ve just discovered that this site is now blocked by Sky (major British ISP) in the United Kingdom as being a hate site. This has only happened in the last few days as I have been accessing it fine for several years. I can change the settings so that it is an allowed site, but I wonder if this may end up with me being put on some kind of watch list. Looks like I may have to start using this Tor dark web browser thingey after all.
Another reader sends this link to a forum discussion from 2012 about site-blocking by Sky. However, this seems to have pertained only to Pirate Bay and kiddie porn sites.
So what’s happened in the last few days? Could Sky’s new policy be a reaction to the latest Hate not Hope “report” on the dangers of the Counterjihad? Gates of Vienna was featured in that, as usual. I rated an entire section! Of which I was quietly proud, even though Mr. Lowles’ inimitable prose was riddled with numerous factual errors — after all, no one’s perfect.
For readers who may have missed this important milestone, the HnH report is discussed by its compliant mouthpiece, the Grauniad. For a less slavishly promotional discussion, see Breitbart, here and here. The material in the report is almost entirely a rehash of previous stuff from the post-Breivik period — much of it inaccurate — with a thin overlay of alarm about Donald Trump, who seems to have provided Nick Lowles with a marvelous fundraising opportunity.
IMHO there is a big difference between ‘hate speech’ and free speech. Hate speech could be any utterance that the political class, opposition, or various political, religious, or academic group does simply not like. this is De Facto censorship of the worst kind. Thank the Lord for the US 1st Amendment.
The First Amendment does not guarantee websites won’t be blocked by ISPs. We’ve been blocked by American ISPs in the past. They are well within their rights, since they are private enterprises.
Do not despair – your GoV community is stronger than an ISP.
I am visiting via Sky
Well, that’s peculiar! Any other readers seeing this via Sky?
I think there may be two levels of blocking. There is the discretionary blocking under their “Broadband Shield” service which I think is required by UK law and is turned on by default but can be turned off, and there is absolute blocking over which you have no choice which blocks chiled porn and prirate sites.
Those who are not experiencing it have probably turned off the Broadband Shield service.
Me too.
1) Rupert Murdoch owns this
2) Rupert Murdoch supported Hillary Clinton and Obama in 2008
3) Makes perfect sense to me
On 8 May 2006, the Financial Times reported that Murdoch would be hosting a fund-raiser for Senator Hillary Clinton’s (D-New York) Senate re-election campaign.[108] In a 2008 interview with Walt Mossberg, Murdoch was asked whether he had “anything to do with the New York Post’s endorsement of Barack Obama in the democratic primaries.” Without hesitating, Murdoch replied, “Yeah. He is a rock star. It’s fantastic. I love what he is saying about education. I don’t think he will win Florida… but he will win in Ohio and the election. I am anxious to meet him. I want to see if he will walk the walk.”[109][110] Murdoch is a strong supporter of Israel and its domestic policies.[111]”
I visit this site daily via Sky broadband. GoV has not been available a couple of times in 3 months for an hour or so at most.
Is there a “blocked sites” list like the other commenter described?
I have been aware for several years, four or more, that GoV is blocked by McDonalds, in Australia at least, and a number of other food chains offering free WiFi. No doubt this trend will widen as waycist “Neo-Nazi” scum such as myself post here.
No surprise. England, contrary to what many believe, is smoothly integrated into the global cheer leading group for Muslimdom. Yes, there are huffs and puffs from time to time, but, on the other hand, what did they do after the jihadi outrages that hit their country? Very little, if anything. Expect to discover at some point Islamist penetration in the most unlikely places supposedly “secure” and “safe.”
I just read the Grauniad article cited above. Apparently there is a “Neo-Nazi” monster called Paul Weston that posts on this website. One visualizes a shaven headed thug, with tattoos, piercings and the like who sounds like he learned how to speak English. poorly, only last month.
Mercifully, the Paul Weston, whose posts that I’ve seen here and with whom I am familiar from You Tube videos, is a temperate, well-spoken, well-groomed, obviously educated and highly intelligent man. Clearly there must be two Paul Westons or The Grauniad’s brainless ideological warrior and lickspittle, pardon me, journalist, has made shome mishtake (burp).
This is Paul Weston’s political party, Liberty GB.
http://libertygb.org.uk/v1/
Reading this via Sky, as I have done for several years.
Since the military takeover here in Thailand, some of your news reports from the UK have been blocked. Even dear old Peter Hitchens has suffered this fate.
My O2 4G line in UK came with an ‘under 18 lock’ on it that I had to get removed (visit to the ISP shop); whilst I could get GoV, I could not get LGB. I was told that all inet access had this lock on it (by law) until I proved that I was over 18.
So much for freedom of expression in modern Britain.
No such thing here in England. I complained to my local Councillor about a mosque (converted pub and announced as Community Project) here in King’s Lynn. The weasel then snitched to the local Kommissar sorry Diversity Officer who then sent two Special Branch Officers to my home to “allay my fears” re the mosque. For the benefit of American readers, Special Branch are police officers who deal with terrorist threats. I have never seen a muslim in King’s Lynn but I am told that there are around thirty or so. We are not – as yet – enriched to any degree.
Further to my last, before I was online, I used the local library internet service and several times I found that the British National Party site was blocked – also barenakedislam. Usually took a couple of weeks of emailing local council to get them unblocked.
The UK mobile phone network EE recently added this site to its list of “blocked because of adult content, over 18’s only”. You now have to register your SIM with a credit card to access GOV, up until a week ago it was open to all.
Certain reports are blocked by the Broward County library, here in Florida. But most of the articles come through. No problem with ATT u-verse. at home.
The blocking habit started with mobile phones to stop kiddies (who were too young to be trusted with phones but were given them anyway by incompetent parents) from gawping at pr0n. The Big 6 ISPs were bullied into doing the same.
It can be lifted by special pleading to the ISP to get yourself put on a preverts list instead (how else does Mr Plod look at the list of those who do not want to be stopped from looking at pr0n?).
Of course once you have all the apparatus for censorship in place mission creep becomes inevitable, especially for good reasons such as stopping the glorification of terrorism to impressionable young minds.
While we will all eventually have to become adept at using Tor or similar, in the meantime the answer is to go to one of the smaller ISPs. The government seems to have left them alone at present.
I used to read this site in the clear here in North Africa, but lately I’ve taken to using a VPN (virtual private network) to encrypt and disguise my surfing from the local ISP.
I don’t believe the local technical and monitoring capabilities are that good, but one never knows….
Didn’t a few Brit MP’s try to have GoV blocked last year. I wonder how they did?
Nope. There’s something else causing his block. Some cookie or technical error. No difficult here accessing any site from the UK.
“I wonder if this may end up with me being put on some kind of watch list”
I have personally ALWAYS operated on the principle that the powers that be are able to access every key-stroke one makes and in real time.
The most secure form of communication has now reverted to a message being in ones head. Or part of a message with other parts being memorised by one or more people who are unknown to each other. The enemies at the gate already know this and act accordingly.
They may utilise an electronic medium with a seemingly high-risk content in order to see how capable we are at picking it up. An arms race comes in many forms.
Of course you are on a watchlist. Anyone who could potentially threaten the narrative is.
For the record I would be very dismayed if our supposed protectors couldn’t actually keep a close watch on things (with obvious caveats built in of course).
The game is now well in play and it will end the way it ends before the next phase in human affairs.
It’s just the way it is.