My Question to Croydon Council 28/01/2013

Why is the National Front website blocked by Croydon Library computers?  Who is responsible for blocking websites? And when will Croydon residents be able to view the websites of all registered political parties on Library computers?

Answer provided by Cllr Tim Pollard

Croydon libraries' public access internet is provided via the London Grid for learning (LGfL) neywork and is subject to their acceptable use policy and filtering software. This filtering software checks a large database of website addresses (URLs) which have been categorised according to their content. A large number of websites, too numerous to list, are blocked because their content is violent, sexually explicit, racist, terrorist, or inappropriate for use in public space.
It is possible to re-categorise a website at. A local level but any decision must be made against the criteria above and not contravene the LGfL acceptable use policy.
The request to unblock the National Front website has been considered. The site falls under the LGfL category of "racism and hatred" which is why it is blocked.

Supplementary question by myself

The National Front is a registered political party, not a hate group.

Why has the Council not blocked Page 3 of the Sun, Hizb ut-Tahriri, the Communist Party or other racial interest parties, like Operation Black Vote?

Why are LGfL denying blocking the National Front website?

If you can’t agree who is to blame for blocking the National Front website, how disorganised will libraries be when they are fully privatised?

Cllr Pollard refused to answer the Supplementary   question but Cllr Stuart Collins (lab) went on to say that he does not agree with the blocking of the NF website and that Nick Griffin on Question Time did more damage to the far right than the left had ever done.