IWF staff threatened after Wikipedia debacle

The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) has revealed to Computer Shopper that some of its members have received "threats to their safety". The self-regulated internet watchdog said that angry internet users have sent threatening messages to members of its staff following the Wikipedia scandal in December 2008. The IWF has since been forced to take down images of staff from its website, due to fears over their wellbeing.

The organisation is taking the threats very seriously and Computer Shopper was not allowed to take photos or video during our recent visit to the IWF's headquarters.

The IWF sparked controversy when a Wikipedia page on German heavy metal band Scorpions was blocked by ISPs after the watchdog deemed one of its album covers to be "potentially illegal". Adding the page to the block list, which is used by many ISPs, had the knock-on effect of blocking many UK users from accessing Wikipedia in its entirety.

Although the IWF later backed down and removed the block, many internet users were left fuming about the action. The main problem, as internet users saw it, was not that paedophilic images should be blocked, but that they didn't believe that the power to choose which content is acceptable should lie with a non-governmental body.

"The problem is, the only current 'solution' is a group of people who create a list based on what they consider to be child pornography, not on legal definitions, as seen by the Wikipedia fiasco," said Shopper reader big_D, in a forum post. "I'm all for stopping child pornography, but the way the IWF seems to be doing it is flawed"

The IWF's statement that it blocked the Wikipedia page because it was "potentially illegal" just adds to the argument and shows that the body can't make decisions on what content is actually illegal.

The IWF claims that although it is not a government-regulated body, it offers its blacklist to ISPs as a service, in order to help them block illegal content without exposing their own staff to it. Although the UK government has called on UK ISPs to block all child sexual abuse websites, it has not created a regulatory body of its own to determine what content should be blocked. ISPs therefore have little choice but to subscribe to the IWF's blacklist.

"The industry trusts us to work with them," IWF's director of communications Sarah Robertson told Shopper. "We offer the public an extra level of protection when they're surfing in the internet."

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