Internet phishing labels leading to censorship

To the editor:

On Oct. 11, Fortiguard released a major update. Since then, I have experienced several blocked links in my emails when using the library’s public wi-fi.

At casual glance, they appear to be legitimate blocking of shady sites, but these are sites I know and have been subscribing to for years, plus, I’ve recently gotten home internet, and these same sites are not getting blocked on my home connection.

The difference is that the public wi-fi is being filtered Fortiguard (aka Fortinet), and the blocked links are being labeled “Phishing” and/or “Newly Registered Domain” (which describes almost every political campaign site). The “phishing” label, in particular, seems to be levied only against domains with subject matter unfavorable to the Biden-Harris administration.

Unlike YouTube and Facebook, which, ultimately, are only single sites, this sort of shenanigans can cut people off from dozens of sites, simply by putting the domains on a list called “phishing” or other filter that many system administrators commonly block.

I tried to file a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission about this, since wi-fi would logically fall under “communication,” but the FCC washed its hands of it and said that politically-motivated interference with election-related communications was an Federal Trade Commission issue.

The librarians seemed concerned when I told them about it, but nothing’s been done. This is the same sort of censorship I experienced during the COVID lockdowns. How many people aren’t getting access (or getting extremely limited access) to both sides because they depend on public internet access?

Wendy Goerl, Shawano