Just another step along the path to government control of opinion:
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is blocking certain websites from the federal agency's computers, including halting access by staffers to any Internet pages that contain a "controversial opinion," according to an internal email obtained by CBS News.I can understand why the TSA, or any employer, would want to block four of the five categories above. They're probably time wasters and don't contributed anything to the productivity of the job. However, when you start censuring opinion you get into an area full of land mines. Who gets to make decisions as to what's controversial? A conservative might consider any number of lefty bombthrower sites to be controversial, but should they be banned? And given that this is the federal government we're talking about it's much more likely that conservative sites will get the heave ho.
The email was sent to all TSA employees from the Office of Information Technology on Friday afternoon.
It states that as of July 1, TSA employees will no longer be allowed to access five categories of websites that have been deemed "inappropriate for government access."
The categories include:
• Chat/Messaging
• Controversial opinion
• Criminal activity
• Extreme violence (including cartoon violence) and gruesome content
• Gaming
The email does not specify how the TSA will determine if a website expresses a "controversial opinion."
There is also no explanation as to why controversial opinions are being blocked, although the email stated that some of the restricted websites violate the Employee Responsibilities and Conduct policy.
Banning opinion sites is simply a bad idea.
UPDATE: In the comments a good point is made - the only category of potentially objectionable websites not specifically banned is porn. It wasn't that long ago that some people at the FTC were caught surfing porn as the nation's financial system melted down.
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4 comments:
Porn sites are not on the restricted list. Welcome to Progressive Marxist America.
This issue has already been won in the courts. An employee was fired for perusing the Internet on his break. The court found in favor of the employee because the Internet is considered an electronic magazine, and unless the employer is going to ban magazines, books, etc, they have to allow the employee access to the Internet on their break.
Anything else is censorship.
Interesting what Guy Average said about porn not being on the list.
The "Progressive" party is not so progressive.
Just more adverse stuff to add to the list regarding Obama and his administration so people will know how to vote coming November.
So, what's next?
The government is going to buy whatever books, magazines, videos their employees want to read on their break or lunchtime?
These are government computers for use in conducting government business.
They are not the employees' computers to use as they want.
My daughter is working in an office this summer. When she has the task of data entry, the computer she uses does not have internet access except for the database she is using.
And Guy, you are incorrect.
Porn is banned.
Go to a government employee computer, type in playboy.com and you will see a blocked message.
The SEC employee was getting around the ban.
As a teacher, I've seen kids get around the blocks. And when IT blocks the new access point, within a day a new workaround is shared amongst the kids.
(I wonder if wonkette is on the blocked list?)
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