Same increases inclusivity of website access

By Chloe Forssell and Tupelo SullivanOn Tuesday, Feb. 19, Rachael Odebunmi (’20) was working in her English class on a school computer when she attempted to access the website of an LGBTQ+ homeless shelter on the Samo wifi and found the website was blocked. Intrigued, she searched the name of a homeless shelter that did not specifically cater towards the LGBTQ+ community, and was confused to discover she had full access to the website. As Odebunmi dug deeper, she discovered that other LGBTQ+ oriented website were also blocked, because they were categorized under “alternative sexual lifestyles.” Obedunmi told her classmates about what she has found, and they quickly began investigating what other sites were, or were not, blocked. They found a student could visit pages like alt-right website Stormfront or Cosmopolitan, both displaying provocative images that seemed to be far more inappropriate to Odebunmi than a page supporting the queer community. While the issue was brought up to the district and was quickly resolved, Odebunmi felt it highlighted an important discussion regarding underlying issues in the way internet blocking companies choose to block certain categories of sites.“The fact that it is blocked implies that we have to protect our children from the [LGBTQ+] community. It is just another example of systematic homophobia sending the message to young people that being gay or trans or however someone identifies is a negative thing. I am so happy that I was able to change this, so future students would be able to access the resources they need,” Odebunmi said.The LGBTQ+ websites, alongside other categories of websites, were blocked by ContentKeeper, a company whose software SMMUSD buys to comply with the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA). Enacted in 2000, CIPA mandates that all entities receiving federal funding for internet and telecommunications guarantee they have protection measures against inappropriate content: obscene pictures, child pornography or pictures harmful to minors. In this case, Samo purchased ContentKeeper to comply with the measure. ContentKeeper, and similar businesses that provide internet security software categorize web addresses for blocking, and do not disclose exactly how they categorize websites to comply with the CIPA. According to the American Library Association (ALA), internet filtering companies convert a website’s domain to an IP address, categorize content by the address and then modify the the classification to block any website within that category. Additionally, URLs are often placed within categories and blocked as a group, which can lead to “overblocking.” This explains why GLAAD.com may have been flagged as “Alternative Sexual Lifestyles,” and blocked categorically, not specifically to block LGBTQ+ content.There has been a history of court cases of those challenging the CIPA for unconstitutional restrictions. The most well known case was the 2001 trial United States v. American Library Association (ALA). The ALA claimed that the CIPA wrongfully banned access to information that was protected by the US Constitution, arguing that the "CIPA runs counter to these federal efforts to close the digital divide for all Americans,” according to Oyez. In the end, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of CIPA, allowing this internet blockage to continue; however, it brought the discussion into the public sphere, one that mirrors Odebunmi’s discovery.The wifi blocker Samo uses is preset to block any website deemed “obscene.” Because LGBTQ+ sites were categorized as “Alternative Sexual Lifestyles” which contains actual “obscene” content, the entire category was not allowed to be searched. Before Odebunmi brought the issue up to her S-House advisor Amy Golden, the district did not realize that these sites were blocked. Samo administration had to update their firewall and unblock these harmless sites.“Once it was brought to our attention, we knew this of course should not be blocked. I contacted Mr. Manzur who is the IT [Internet Technician] person at Samo and he wrote to the district’s IT person [John Castillo], asking to look into this, and he responded and fixed the issue all within 24 hours,” Golden said.