Recent reports have revealed a very interesting fact - adult content filters used by mobile operators have started a process called "over-blocking". This means that legitimate sites are being blocked by filters.

The Open Rights Group (ORG) and the LSE Media Policy Project both thought this was unfair which is why they teamed up to reveal the sites that were blocked despite being legitimate organisations or businesses.

Some of the sites that were unfairly blocked are as follows:

1.    La Quadrature du Net - French digital rights activists. The block has been removed shortly after users reported they could not access it.
2.    Shelfappeal.com - general interest blog. Orange reportedly blocked it on the 15th of February.
3.    St Margaret's Community Website - an appreciation and information website which keeps the residents of St Margaret's (South West London) informed about the area (reported blocked on the 8th of March on Orange and T-Mobile).
4.    Torproject - website representing the privacy tool, Tor. Blocked by Vodafone, O2 and Three last January.
5.    eHow - advice website. Orange was reported as blocking it on the 9th of March.
6.    Biased-BBC - blog which suggests that the BBC isn't an entirely impartial news source. Blocked by on O2 and T-Mobile on the 5th of March. Classified as "hate page" by O2.
7.    Equisitetweets - page which allows users to save their favourite Twitter threads. The website was reported as blocked by Vodafone, Orange, and T-Mobile on the 15th February.

The list has been compiled to underline that content filters can slow down traffic to some websites which are unfairly blocked, meaning that the webmasters or firms may lose out on consumer awareness and business opportunities.

SimplifyDigital is keen to know if such a report exists based on TalkTalk's HomeSafe programme, some glitches have been revealed before but these were mainly concerning adult content still being visible rather than unfair blocks.

Lastly, the ORG stated in its Internet Censorship Report:

"What is clear is that the blocking extends well beyond adult sexual content. And it is important to recognise that what is 'appropriate' is not at all easily defined, leaving many of the reports in a grey area."

As the saying goes - one man's trash is another man's treasure. One cannot simply decide what a "hate site" is and expect everyone to merrily agree.