Internet users in the United Kingdom can no longer edit Wikipedia or access an article about an album by the Scorpions, a German rock band. The Internet Watch Foundation, a UK regulatory agency, blacklisted the site Saturday after a user reported the image on the album as child sex abuse. The hotline analysts determined the image was potentially illegal.
“The IWF does not issue takedown notices to ISPs [Internet Service Providers] or hosting companies outside the UK, but we did advise one of our partner hotlines abroad and our law-enforcement partner agency of our assessment,” the group said on its Web site. “The specific URL (individual Web page) was then added to the list provided to ISPs and other companies in the online sector to protect their customers from inadvertent exposure to a potentially illegal indecent image of a child.”
95 Percent of UK Internet Users Blocked
On its Web site, Wikipedia said several large ISPs that cooperate with the IWF subsequently blocked the image, affecting an estimated 95 percent of residential Internet users in the UK.
“Due to the way the block was created (via transparent proxies), users from the affected ISPs now share a small number of IP addresses. This means that a user committing vandalism cannot be distinguished from all the other people on the same ISP,” Wikipedia said.
“Unfortunately, the effect of this is that all users from the affected ISPs are temporarily blocked from editing Wikipedia. Simply viewing the site is not affected, aside from the blocked article and image.”
According to Mike Godwin, the Wikipedia Foundation’s general counsel, there is no reason to believe the article, or the 32-year-old image contained in the article, has been held to be illegal in any jurisdiction anywhere in the world.
“We believe it’s worth noting that the image is currently visible on Amazon, where…