Sheraton Hotels Block Access To CFL

[angelatc]

http://www.amconmag.com/blog/2009/06/12/hate-crimes-and-harmful-content/


A friend checked out of the Dulles Sheraton Hotel yesterday morning. Before leaving to catch his flight, he used the hotel internet service to check the sites that he reads each day. He could not access Ron Paul’s Campaign for Liberty site. The message ”Code 451 - The access to the address above is restricted. According to our harmful content database, SiteCoach does not allow you to visit this page” appeared. When he tried again and held the key down a very brief message appeared that said “Forbidden: keyword racist

What the hell is wrong with people?

[qh4dotcom]

I have never stayed in one and after reading this I never ever plan on staying in one

[ItsTime]

screen shot?

[He Who Pawns]

Before anyone jumps to any conclusions, this should be looked into further and confirmed.

A lot of these things are automatic. They might pick up the words "guns" or something.

[angelatc]

Before anyone jumps to any conclusions, this should be looked into further and confirmed.

A lot of these things are automatic. They might pick up the words "guns" or something.

"Guns" are racist?

[acptulsa]

"Guns" are racist?

I prefer blued steel to chrome. Does that count?

[Kludge]

I'm glad Sheraton Hotels is keeping the -isms out of their hotels, personally -- especially the libertarianism..... Radical ideology...

[acptulsa]

I'm glad Sheraton Hotels is keeping the -isms out of their hotels, personally -- especially the libertarianism..... Radical ideology...

Suits me. I didn't want to stay there anyway. And won't.

[bobbyw24]

From Philip Giraldi from @TAC:
A friend checked out of the Dulles Sheraton Hotel yesterday morning. Before leaving to catch his flight, he used the hotel internet service to check the sites that he reads each day. He could not access Ron Paul’s Campaign for Liberty site. The message ”Code 451 - The access to the address above is restricted. According to our harmful content database, SiteCoach does not allow you to visit this page” appeared. When he tried again and held the key down a very brief message appeared that said “Forbidden: keyword racist

[ItsTime]

"Guns" are racist?

what day was it?

Front page on the 11th

"James W. Von Brunn and the Poison of Racist Collectivism "

front page on the 8th

"How Do We Defeat Racism and Discrimination Once and For All?"

I think the script is picking up the word racism and censoring that?

[fr33domfightr]

From sitekiosk.com:

How SiteCoach works

The content filter is a proxy server that scans in real time and, if necessary, blocks websites if any suspicious content is found. Your Internet Explorer proxy settings will remain valid.

1. SiteCoach contains a database containing over 600,000 categorized “forbidden” domains. Entries on this list will automatically be blocked. Example: http://www.playboy.com/

2. Several thousand "clean" domains are included on an "Allowed" list which content will automatically be considered not harmful. This list contains known sites which will not be blocked even if "suspicious" content was detected.

3. Administrators can manually expand both of these lists to block or allow any websites they choose.

4. SiteCoach maintains these lists and provides free updates over the Internet. The list will be updated as soon as your terminal has established an online connection.

5. A complex list of words containing regular expressions will optionally be used to scan websites missing on the list for forbidden expressions:
◦URL - e.g. http://www.sex*.*/
◦Document Title - e.g. <title>Sex etc.</title>
◦Meta tags - e.g. keywords: sex, etc.
◦Body - will scan the body for forbidden expressions

6. The users will not notice any delay in loading the page as the scanning process is performed while the page is being loaded.

7. Automatic updates for the filtering lists are available for free download, i.e. as soon as there are new lists available on our servers, the terminals will automatically download and integrate these lists.

[It's a content filter. If you use this, you should reply to inform them CFL is OK, should not be blocked. FF]


FF

[angelatc]

what day was it?

Front page on the 11th

"James W. Von Brunn and the Poison of Racist Collectivism "

front page on the 8th

"How Do We Defeat Racism and Discrimination Once and For All?"

I think the script is picking up the word racism and censoring that?

So we can assume all news sites are blocked?

[ItsTime]

So we can assume all news sites are blocked?

Maybe. Unless they are on the lists of "safe sites" and cfl has yet to be put on that list. The script was reading keyword racist meaning that word was being blocked.

[Brassmouth]

what day was it?

Front page on the 11th

"James W. Von Brunn and the Poison of Racist Collectivism "

front page on the 8th

"How Do We Defeat Racism and Discrimination Once and For All?"

I think the script is picking up the word racism and censoring that?

...I don't think racist sites actually use the word "racist."

[ItsTime]

...I don't think racist sites actually use the word "racist."

Nor do I. But I didnt enter the keywords into their database, so who knows what that person was thinking.

[gls]

I'm going to email the company. If they don't rectify the problem after being alerted to it I think a boycott is appropriate.

[He Who Pawns]

How about a little less screaming and panicking, and a little more investigation?

Has anyone contacted SiteCoach to get to the bottom of this?