A lot can happen in six months. Back in February, the ACLU launched the “Don’t Filter Me” campaign to address the problem of viewpoint discrimination in web filtering software used by public schools. As Shenna blogged about on Wednesday, this year marked the first ever celebration of “Banned Websites Awareness Day,” and in conjunction with this new focus on web censorship, the ACLU has released an interim report detailing what we’ve discovered so far and what progress we’ve been able to make. Turns out we've done pretty well.
In just six months, the project has already investigated and confirmed 84 reports of anti-LGBT web filtering at public schools in 24 different states, including Maine. What's most troubling is that many of the filters that deny students access to positive, affirming information about LGBT issues are at the same time allowing unfiltered access to anti-gay websites. In response, we’ve been raising awareness about the issue, sending letters to schools demanding that they stop using these discriminatory web filters, and we’ve even filed a lawsuit in federal court. So far 96 schools across the country have changed their filter configurations, resulting in improved access for 144,670 students. Five out of the six software companies that have been targeted by the initiative have changed their settings to distinguish educational LGBT content from adult content. And the ACLU’s public education strategy around the campaign has led to over 100 news stories about the “Don’t Filter Me” initiative, including some very positive editorials in national newspapers.
If you’re a student and you want to know whether your school is filtering out information you have a right to see, investigate it. If you feel you are being denied access to websites that contain positive, affirming information about LGBT issues, tell us about it. This form of censorship and viewpoint discrimination needs to come to an end -- and thanks to the ACLU, it's starting to.