Hidden censorship

Hidden censorship

Electronic media have become incredibly important in our lives. We can't really imagine living without the internet anymore. From other parts of the world we hear that the internet is being curtailed. Now, unfortunately, I had to realize once again that even in the middle of Europe there is secret censorship happening — my website is being banned.

 

A few years ago, on a trip to Ireland, I experienced that my website was blocked on the hotel's WLAN. My site was classified as pornography. Now this is really ridiculous, because there is a significant difference between my work and pornography. Nothing against pornography! It's just that my work is not pornographic. I can't let that stand as it is.

Eroticism is desire, pornography is satisfaction.

Now I was just at the airport in Rome. As I waited for my flight, a model wrote me if our photos from November were already online. I said yes and wanted to briefly check my own website. And then I noticed that in the airport WLAN my website was not running.

I tried it immediately without WLAN and my site was up and running. Then I asked my provider to check if my certificate was correct. He replied only one and a half hour later that everything was without problems.

Error message at Rome airport
Check by my provider

So it seems the provider of the WLAN at Rome airport doesn't want to show my website. But he doesn't say so, but hides it behind technical mumbling. This kind of censorship — in the year 2022 in the middle of Europe — is sad.

When I landed in Frankfurt, I opened my website directly in the WLAN of the Frankfurt airport. There, at least, it worked fine.

All of this is not a huge issue. Especially in times when there are much worse problems in the world. But I still don't find it cool that there is secretly censoring in some places inside the EU.

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