Ways to bypass the Big Belgian firewall

Saturday

Yes, the Belgian government can decide which websites we visit and which we don't. The first step on a road that will lead us to situations like we have seen in Australia (According to Child Support groups, Net filtering is a waste of money)

Here is the best Belgian article I have read to date about this issue which covers all aspects : "zwarte lijst voor belgische surfers omstreden" by Els Bellens (Zdnet.be)

Like Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the WWW stated, the internet was designed to be used without limitations. The main argument of government officials to start with this blacklist, is that "average users won't be able to stumble upon these bad websites anymore. It's for their own protection. "

And in a typical Belgian fashion, (luckily for us), it's implemented in the least efficient manner: a DNS blacklist.

And as expected, a lot of internet users (e.g. blogologie, lvb.net, belgiancowboys.be, tik vzw) have started listing ways to bypass this filter just as a matter of principle (like the Streisand effect).

So let's hope that this blacklist will go away and the government will stop throwing away money on an inefficient systems that will never work.

1 comments:

Andrew Yeomans said...: I think the average citizen might disagree with you. People already deploy filtering, whether in their PC Security software, their web browser, browser toolbar, or search engine - all of which try to stop you going to harmful sites. DNS blacklists simply add another protective layer on this. Offered as a free service, to help stop your PC connecting to criminal or damaging websites, I think most people would sign up. And such a block can significantly help stop botnets by preventing the connection to command&control servers.

Or is this just that you don't trust the Belgian government to define and implement a fair policy? If this is the case, DNS blocking is arguably the best technical method, as it is simple to opt out. Maybe you object to arbitrary censorship and wish to defend free speech? A very worthwhile goal, but society doesn't normally give quite the same rights to criminals.

So where you really need to apply pressure is on the control of any filtering, whether in DNS or any of the other technologies. Make sure the remit is accountable and visible, and meets human rights safeguards, so this becomes a trustworthy service that is of true benefit to the whole population.; November 1, 2009 9:36 AM