IWF staff "threatened" following Wikipedia scandal

 

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By Barry Collins

Posted on 17 Mar 2009 at 08:53

Staff at the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) have received "threats to their safety" after the organisation effectively censored Wikipedia.

The IWF received the threats in the wake of the Wikipedia scandal, which saw the organisation temporarily blacklist the page on The Scorpions' Virgin Killer album because it contained a photo of a provocatively-posed, naked girl. The IWF lifted the ban within days, after millions of Brits were blocked from editing Wikipedia and a surge of traffic to the blacklisted page.

The IWF has since been forced to take down images of staff from its website because of fears over their wellbeing, according to a report from our sister-site, Computer Shopper.

Computer Shopper's staff were also asked not to take photos or shoot video footage on a recent visit to the organisation's headquarters.

John Carr, IWF board member and secretary of the Children's Charities' Coalition on Internet Safety (CCCIS), recently told PC Pro that the Wikipedia ban was a tactical error. "The Wikipedia thing was a mistake," Carr said. "Absolutely no question about that. It shouldn't have happened. It's the first and only mistake I can think of in 12 years of operation by the IWF."

However, Carr defended the IWF's role in blocking access to sites it deems to contain illegal images. "The scale of offending in terms of child pornography has gone absolutely through the roof compared with the level of offending that existed prior to the internet," Carr said.

"So, yes, I do think there are some guys, who if it weren't for the blocking mechanisms we've got in place, would probably have got into serious trouble, but mercifully they're being stopped because we've got this technology in place."