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# The Great Firewall of Britain
- URL: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/the-great-firewall-of-britain/
- Published: 2008-12-10T14:12:04.000Z
- Updated: 2019-02-14T22:42:26.000Z
- Author: Tom Griffin
- Tags: #en, #Migrated, #Import 2026-04-09 18:49

**Tom Griffin (London,** [**OK**](https://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom)**)**: The Internet Watch Foundation has now [removed its block](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7774102.stm?ref=opendemocracy.net) on the Wikipedia page for The Scorpions album Virgin Killer, but the episode has provided an interesting insight into the ways in which access to the internet can be controlled.

[The Register](http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/12/10/iwf%5Freverses%5Fwikiban/?ref=opendemocracy.net) reports:

*The IWF received a complaint about the image earlier this month, and after deciding it may violate the law, the British net censor added Wikipedia to a blacklist designed to protect the customers of ISPs and other companies "from inadvertent exposure to a potentially illegal indecent image of a child."* 
  
*In order to block the image, six ISPs - Virgin Media, Be Unlimited/O2/Telefonica, EasyNet/UK Online, PlusNet, Demon, and Opal - began routing all Wikipedia traffic through a small number of transparent proxy servers. In some cases, the ISPs also blocked the entire Wikipedia article - not just the image.*

[Cory Doctorow](http://www.boingboing.net/2008/12/07/how-the-great-firewa.html?ref=opendemocracy.net) highlights one implication of this process: "a third party now monitors every request made to Wikipedia from the six ISPs that participate in the Great Firewall of Britain."