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Google-Funded Free Wi-Fi Kiosks Are Scrapping Web Browsing Because Too Many People Were Using it For Porn (businessinsider.com)

Posted by msmash on from the wi-fi-nazi dept.

This is why New Yorkers can't have nice things. LinkNYC, the initiative to install super-fast wifi hubs in New York City, is suspending web browsing on all its tablets after 8 months due to "inappropriate behavior," the company says, according to a report on BusinessInsider. From the article:Google parent company Alphabet funds LinkNYC through its spinoff Sidewalk Labs. "... Some users have been monopolizing the Link tablets and using them inappropriately, preventing others from being able to use them while frustrating the residents and businesses around them," the company writes in a statement. DNAInfo previously reported that people were using the hubs to watch porn.

7 of 140 comments (clear)

  1. So what by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    If I want to watch porn and masturbate at a kiosk, who are you to take away my American freedoms? George Washington fought for my right to masturbate at kiosks.

  2. addressing the wrong problem. again. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Porn or cat videos. Or playing Candy Crush for hours. Once again, addressing the wrong problem. Why should it matter what I watch on them. The real problem is here is monopolisation of the devices. I can monopolise one of those devices just as easily watching cat videos.

    For once. Just once, will somebody look at a problem and address it properly rather than taking a side-swipe at some unrelated hot-button topic?

  3. It begs to say... by bettodavis · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'm utterly shocked about this completely unexpected development.

  4. Re:addressing the wrong problem. again. by Koreantoast · · Score: 4, Informative
    If you read the article, that's exactly what they're exploring: time limits and other ways to prevent monopolization. The wifi services, free calls, and maps are still enabled. This is just a temporary measure until they come up with a better solution.

    LinkNYC says that it's working with city officials to come up with potential solutions, like time limits, so that it can allow users to browse the web once more. In the meantime, people will still be able to use the tablets to make calls and look at maps.

  5. Re:Lol by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    That's even worse! Did you mean "than"?

  6. Re:addressing the wrong problem. again. by Oligonicella · · Score: 4, Insightful

    They're preventing people from viewing material they consider objectionable.

    Their hubs, their rules. This is a classic example of the tragedy of the commons. There's always some douche who wants to abuse it. I'm curious as to why your ire isn't directed at the abusers.

  7. Re:Lol by Archangel+Michael · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Trivial in execution, good for a laugh

    Yeah, amateur shock is "funny" in the same way that my brother in law dropping trou at Thanksgiving was funny. He isn't allowed in my house until he apologizes, and at 55 years old, still hasn't figured out what he did wrong.

    At some point, the shock value isn't funny anymore (if it was ever that way) People usually grow out of that once they get out of puberty, some people never do.

    --
    Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.