:: netwoman's blog ::

What is Spam?

I received an email today from Joan Korenman to tell me that my ISP provider has once again added the Women's Studies list to the spam filter. This is the second time this has happened to me - apparently, it rated 9.0 spam points. My ISP also added the AoIR list to the spam list. I believe they use SpamAssassin.

Don't get me wrong, I hate spam. Even through the filter, I still received numerous emails about enlarging certain parts of my body (that I don't have) and making 'it' worker better and longer.

"SpamAssassin is a mail filter to identify spam using text analysis. Using its rule base, it uses a wide range of heuristic tests on mail headers and body text, to identify "spam", or unsolicited commercial email."

I don't understand why the internet research list is on there. However, I can see how the Women's Studies list would make the spam filter spin. Consider the vocabulary that is used - sex - gender - women. Hell, we may even discuss p o r n and its implications on women. Who knew?

I had something similar happen to me in the past. When I started an information website in 1996 on women's issues concerning domestic assault and sexual violence, a reader emailed to tell me that Net-Nanny had banned my website because of the content. I found this interesting and disturbing at the same time. Here I was trying to 1. put some content on the internet that was pertinent to women (very few sites like this in '96) and 2. get women and girls to read this for education and support. My site also included legal advice and phone numbers for crisis centres. The Net-Nanny however, thought otherwise and presumed that this was an 'adult' site, meaning there was a good chance that young girls could not obtain the information they needed.

A presenter at the AoIR (I think Elaine Lally) talked about how young girls will turn to their school computer for information about sex education, STDs and so forth, but are not able to do so because the school 'locks out' these sites. Young women who may not feel comfortable searching the internet at home for this information (under the watchful eye parents), are not able to do so at school either. Alison Powell mentions in her AoIR paper that people often use cyber cafes to view sites they can't at home (for various reasons)

Spam filters and Software for protecting children need to be re-examined. The wrong material is being flitered out.

Net Nanny Examined here
"While the Banned Books page and Femina.com are blocked because the URL's exist as entries on Net Nanny's blocked site list, more Web sites are blocked because they contain keywords which activate Net Nanny's word filter. TIME journalists reported in an August 1997 article that Net Nanny blocked the National Organization for Women Web site (which was the source of much more controversy when the same Web site was blocked by CYBERsitter). A Friends University professor also described being denied access to information the Episcopal Church's position on homosexuality, at an unspecified Web site. "

posted by Netwoman @ 9:11 AM