Mysticism

I suspect that Birmingham City Council will soon be changing the default settings on their web content filter:

The authority’s Bluecoat Software computer system allows staff to look at websites relating to Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and other religions but blocks sites to do with “witchcraft or Satanism” and “occult practices, atheistic views, voodoo rituals or any other form of mysticism”. [Emphasis added]

If the decision to block atheist sites and those devoted to non-’mainstream’ religions turns out to be a result of a deliberate policy decision by some middle-ranking manager with an agenda then that individual should be making an appointment at their local Jobcentre any day now.

I wouldn’t be surprised if this ‘ban’ turned out to be a consequence of the IT department accepting a bunch of default settings on their shiny new software package. Not that this is an acceptable situation – if you’re going to buy a software package, you should make sure it’s doing what you want it to, which may not be what the makers anticipated when setting the defaults – but it’s an easy trap to fall into.

As it happens, I was looking at the National Secular Society’s site at the weekend. It’s good to see them taking the lead in this case; I may just throw a donation their way.

[Via Qwghlm]