British Board of Film Classification decides EoZ is not an adult site

Several weeks ago a couple of people told me that they could not reach the EoZ site on British cellular network EE. And from others I heard that a number of pro-Israel websites were blocked as well, such as Israellycool, Sultan Knish and Israel Matzav, Edgar Davidson wrote about it last month.

No anti-Israel site was blocked.

After some research I found out that they were using filtering software from a phone network called O2, and I complained to them, without much success. My mobile site seemed to be OK but not my full website.

It looks like I've been declared kosher enough for children by the people who stare at movies to look for too much skin.

From TheJC:

Telecommunications company O2 has removed blocks on two pro-Israel websites.

The company had denied access to israellycool.com and elderofziyon.blogspot.com to users aged under 18.

The sites feature a range of pro-Israel content and reports on antisemitism.

O2 made the decision following a ruling by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), which oversees web content.

O2 press officer John Maley said in a statement: "The BBFC have confirmed to us that they have recently assessed the two websites and have overruled the grading service where these sites were classified as 18-plus content.

"As a result of the BBFC's decision, we will be removing the restriction for both sites."

O2 uses Symantec Rulespace, a company that classifies online content, and which Catherine Anderson, head of communications at the BBFC, said was "not a perfect science".

She added: "It's automatic filtering, so sometimes things which are borderline will get blocked and a person needs to look at it on a contextual basis. Sometimes keywords are flagged and it's blocked as a result."

Both sites include examples of antisemitic content on their pages in order to highlight and condemn its existence elsewhere online.

One JC reader, who had raised concerns about the block, pointed out that similar pro-Palestinian sites were freely accessible on the O2 network.

It does not seem likely that this site was blocked because of my quoting antisemitic Arab websites. It is not as if I use slurs or other words that would trigger a filter (Talmudic? Settler? Banks?)

The real issue is almost certainly that Israel haters complain regularly to the mobile providers, just as they complain to YouTube and Facebook about Israel-advocacy sites, and the people or software decide that they have validity if more than X number of people complain, triggering the filter. That is what needs to be uncovered. It is absurd that haters can get a site blocked with little effort but it takes weeks of work to get the sites declared OK.

So now I have a mental picture of a bunch of people in a room scanning my site and looking for adult content.