The Brits Are Blacklisting a Deep Purple Blog?

CYBERJAIL—We've seen some lunatic examples over the years of the uncanny ability of some porn filter algorithms to tag sites that run far afield of the intended targets, but this one kind of does take the cake. If the post today is accurate, and we have no reason to think it is not, the presumably infallible porn filter operated by British Telecom (BT) has chosen to prevent access to a blog devoted to all things Deep Purple. That's right, that Deep Purple, the '70s-era English mega-band whose latest incarnation still plies its pioneering brand of heavy metal rock on stages throughout the world, and even released an album in 2013, Now What?, its most recent since 2006's Rapture of the Deep. A fan favorite for decades, Deep Purple has a fan in the Darker Than Blue blog, but today's post indicates that BT has targeted software used by the site, an all but unforgivable sin considering the impeccible pedigree of this particular British import.  Today's post reads, "Having issues with updating the site at present. Apparently the British Government’s new anti-porn filters have been wrongly blacklisting the software I use since Tuesday via the browser I normally work with (Firefox). Somehow I need to persuade BT to 'whitelist' it. Wish me luck with that!  I’ll investigate a third browser in the meantime (Safari never got on with the software anyhow, it’ll be a miracle if it actually posts this) and try to get back that way. There have been issues with other ISPs as well since late last year. It must have been that photo of IG in his sock which triggered all this…" "IG" must refer to bandmate Ian Gillian, though we have not seen the "sock" photo in question and have no intention of going to look for it. That said, we would very much like to know, was it the sock or the software? If the former, we want to know if it was the style or color that offended, or what. If the former, then the implications for other non-porn sites is potentially serious, especially if the issue is with Wordpress, which is what Darker Than Blue uses. Besides the unfortunate presence of creeping British censorship of online content, this small instance of apparent blacklisting could also be the tip of an iceberg that, without standards or oversight to speak of, may easily encompass an alarming number of destinations, including netted websites, blogs, apps and you name it. Rock on! Image: Graphic from Darker Than Blue.