Filters eliminate sites for breast cancer, Holocaust research and AIDS prevention. Several dozen congressional candidates' sites were blocked in November. Most troubling of all, filtering software blocks the sites of groups that criticize filtering software. Public interest groups such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Peacefire and The Ethical Spectacle have all been banned by well-known filtering programs after publishing research exposing the faults in these products. Filtering software companies will not tell you which sites are blocked.
Sites just disappear from computer access.
They won't tell you exactly what criteria are used to block sites. They won't even tell you why a site is blocked if you try to access a forbidden one. In no other medium would Americans stand for this kind of censorship. And libraries are now mandated to install software that will deny adults access to materials that are constitutionally protected - words and pictures that no court has ever deemed indecent, obscene or harmful to minors. Worse yet, librarian-cops aren't required to disable the filters for such adults, only permitted.