Updated 11:10 AM EST
Under pressure from The D.C. Writeup and its supporters, Capitol Hill offices have lifted the ban on both sites. The Senate IT office claimed that both sites posed a potential “malicious” security risk and were blocked to prevent an “external attack” on the Senate.
However, a review of both Web pages conducted last night by the D.C. Writeup found that neither site contains any dangerous code, only biting conservative criticisms. Today, the Senate has agreed with this assessment and decided to end the censorship.
The IT office refused to provide a list of other banned sites and declined to elaborate on their screening process and other mistakes it has made in the past.
Below is the original report, filed on July 23.
Capitol Hill offices have blocked at least two conservative-leaning Web sites without any apparent legitimate reason for doing so, The D.C. Writeup has found.
The Politicizer, a site that bills itself as “A Fresh Perspective On Politics and Society From the Internet Generation,” has been inaccessible every day for the last two weeks in every Senate office building and some House offices on Capitol Hill.
For the entirety of that period, users from a variety of other locations – including nearby offices and some government buildings – had no difficulty loading the site.
While the Politicizer does not claim to be partisan, a majority of the site’s opinion pieces are distinctly conservative, including recent articles such as “Obama’s Small Business Problem” and “Oppose Obamacare.”
The D.C. Writeup has also been inaccessible from the Hill since July 10. Like the Politicizer, the site is not explicitly right-of-center, but features a significant amount of content critical of the Obama administration.
Prior to July 10, the site loaded properly on Capitol Hill computers, suggesting that either an automated system or a government official decided to prevent it from functioning.
Neither the Politicizer nor The D.C. Writeup contains objectionable images or excessive language, especially when compared to other sites that remain functional.
Numerous extremely gay pornography sites, such as LoveTheCock.com and GotGayPorn.com, as well as straight pornography strongholds like Pornhub.com, load without incident in Senate office buildings.
The Senate Sergeant-At-Arms Office is investigating. A representative from the office downplayed the notion that the sites are being actively censored.
“I don’t think they really block Web sites,” he said. It was not clear who he meant by “they.”
Because conservative-leaning sites like Fox News and Newsmax still work on Capitol Hill, it is unlikely that the situation is a conscious effort to target Republicans, he added.
Additionally, sources in Cannon House Office Building report that both sites are accessible there. The House and the Senate use different networks and have different systems administrators.
Unlike those sites, The D.C. Writeup and The Politicizer are relatively new Web sites targeted at a youth audience.
Sources on the Hill said it is troubling that one systems administrator in a particular office has the ability to disrupt content across the entirety of Capital Hill unilaterially.
The D.C. Writeup will have more on this story as it develops and is investigating other sites that may be blocked on the Hill.
The error message displayed when attempting to access the sites on the Hill.
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July 23rd, 2009 at 3:36 pm
So much for Obama’s transparency.
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