SEOs have been hit with another wave of restrictions as well as talk of plenty more in the works. While the US is dealing with what CISPA will entail should president Obama backtrack on his promise to veto the measure, David Cameron, British PM, has a “network filtering plan” coming out that is being met with a mix of applause and boos. Digital rights groups see the filtering plan as a major step down a slippery slope to mass censorship while some parents organizations see it as a necessary and overdue gesture.
What Cameron is putting in the works is a filtering plan that would target pornographic sites. The language of the measure is a bit cloudy however, and many complain there is far too much latitude to label non-pornographic sites as “inappropriate” which would unduly be restrictive. Although the plan is being drawn up so that users would need to opt-in for any adult rated material through their ISP, they harken back to what is going to be considered adult and who is making that choice.
Advocacy groups in favor of the plan state it is very cut and dry. SEOs that have weighed in after review worry that passages aimed at words and not images will be problematic. There is too much for everything to be reviewed by humans, and bots are notorious for misinterpretation of content. While everyone agrees adult themed material needs to be monitored, what few seem to like is that it is likely many will suffer collateral damage in the form of restrictions based on what a bot thinks it is viewing.
Tags: cispa, network filter, seo news
