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I took some time over the last few days to sample what kind of political speech is censored by a typical filtering software package. The result is a report released jointly by EPIC (EPIC's copy) and Peacefire (Peacefire's copy). The software this time is N2H2 Bess, and if you're an American K-12 student, there's roughly a one-in-three chance you're forced to surf the net with its 'help.' It bans political speech ranging from campaign finance reform to the Second Amendment to Minnesota newspapers' election coverage.

My favorite block was the Traditional Values Coalition. Can I say "you reap what you sow" or would that just be rude?

In other news:

(an unrelated) Coalition To Promote Voluntary Net Filtering, Standards

"A new coalition of high-tech companies and industry groups is hoping to shift the focus of the national debate over Internet filtering by promoting the value of filtering software as an exclusively voluntary parental tool. ... the Committee on Internet Management and Safety will tout the value of filtering products while at the same time opposing legally mandated filtering."

Did they say "exclusively voluntary"? Good on 'em! Let's have a real debate about the value of this software, so that people can make up their own minds rather than having the government decide what's best for our schools and libraries. A level playing field would be a lot better than what we have now.