IWF lifts Wikipedia ban

 

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By Barry Collins

Posted on 10 Dec 2008 at 07:45

The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) has reversed its controversial decision to blacklist a Wikipedia page that contained a picture of a naked girl on an album cover.

The IWF ran into a storm of protest when it decided to add the article on The Scorpions' Virgin Killer album to the list of URLs blocked by the vast majority of Britain's ISPs.

The ham-fisted filtering employed by the ISPs left millions of Britons unable to make edits on the Wikipedia site and drove thousands more to seek out the banned image on Wikipedia or alternative sites.

The IWF now admits the ban was counter-productive. "IWF's overriding objective is to minimise the availability of indecent images of children on the internet, however, on this occasion our efforts have had the opposite effect," the watchdog claims in a statement.

"We regret the unintended consequences for Wikipedia and its users. Wikipedia has been informed of the outcome of this procedure and IWF Board's subsequent decision."

The watchdog says the image of the provocatively posed girl on the album cover may still be illegal, but decided to lift the ban because of "the contextual issues involved in this specific case" and "the length of time the image has existed and its wide availability".

However, in a bizarre example of double standards, the IWF says it may still seek to take down sites that host the image in the UK. "Any further reported instances of this image which are hosted abroad, will not be added to the list," it claims. "Any further reported instances of this image which are hosted in the UK will be assessed in line with IWF procedures."

Yesterday, Wikipedia creator Jimmy Wales blasted the IWF's decision to impose a ban on his site, claiming the group was "over-reaching its remit" when it blocked the page.