Birmingham Council in net blocking row

Along with all of the talk about China’s attempt to block some sites from the media in China, we seem to have a similar problem closer to home.

Birmingham City Council is being accused of web filtering by the National Secular Society.

The blocking, or filtering as they are calling it, occurs within the council’s own offices.

Staff are able to access religious websites, but when it comes to sites that are about atheism and other less popular religions then these are unavailable.

The council says that it is introducing new internet monitoring software.

This is to make the access to the internet easier for them to manage.

However, this is always going to be a delicate subject, and the question that the council should be asking is what are its staff doing looking at the internet when they are supposed to be doing a job for council tax payers!

Perhaps a pop-up with something appropriate would be better than blocking.

Of course, sometimes there must be the occasion for staff to use the internet for something work related.

Story link: Birmingham Council in net blocking row