LGBT content unreasonably filtered away in Hong Kong

A LGBT concern group, leslovestudy, conduced a research in Hong Kong [Chinese pdf] in November, 2008 on 5 major commercial and public filters in Hong Kong. The NGO found out that a large amount of LGBT content, including community, health and academic websites, has been widely filtered away in Hong Kong, even in university and public libraries. The group worried that the recent government's consultation on the Control of Obscene and Indecent Article Ordinance, with the proposed extension of the Ordinance on the internet, will results in further repression of free speech, especially among Gay and Lesbian circle in Hong Kong.

The report pointed out that there are two major kind of filters in Hong Kong, one is based on keyword filtering, another one is based on black list. The former will censor away academic and useful information on sex education and health care while the latter will be affected by majority's bias, especially towards sexual minority. A major lesbian forum, blur-f.com, was forced to close down by local ISP even though there isn't even a single nude photos on the websites.

Leslovestudy urges the government not to implement mandatory filtering service at the ISP level and should not subsidy private sector for developing and marketing client-end filters as there isn't any mechanism for monitoring abusive filters provided by private companies.

Leslovestudy chose a number of local and overseas LGBT community websites, as well as academic websites on LGBT and sexuality issues to test the filters. Below is the outcome:

Filter Local websites Overseas websites
Websense (The City University of Hong Kong) A study and advocacy group on LGBT: http://www.leslovestudy.com
A NGO for promoting safe sex and health among LGBT: http://www.satsanga.org
An online forum for LGBT communities: http://www.gaystation.com.hk/bbs/portal.php
An online radio for LGBT communities: http://www.gayradio.hk/index1.html
A podcast channel for Gay communities: http://www.gaychannel.hk/index
A lesbian online forum: http://www.blur-f.com
A gay online forum: http://www.gayhk.com
A Taiwan LGBT photo forum: http://www.tt1069.com
A Mainland China Gay and Lesbian photo forum: http://bbs.sou-tong.org
An Asia based Gay community website: http://www.fridae.com
A Lesbian story telling and friends’ meeting platform: http://herstory.ws
Yale University Gay and Lesbian study index: http://www.library.yale.edu/rsc/gayles/index.html
Site Coach Content Filter (in Macdonald) NGO providing LGBT supporting service: http://www.horizons.org.hk
Hong Kong IDAHO website: http://idahohk.org
An online forum for LGBT communities: http://www.gaystation.com.hk/bbs/portal.php
An online radio for LGBT communities: http://www.gayradio.hk/index1.html
A podcast channel for Gay communities: http://www.gaychannel.hk/index
A lesbian online forum: http://www.blur-f.com
A Lesbian story telling and friends’ meeting platform: http://herstory.ws
Taiwan national central university's sex center: http://sex.ncu.edu.tw
Sex Study center under the Sociology department of Remin University in China: http://www.sexstudy.org/index.php
Gay and Lesbian Journal site of Duke University: http://glq.dukejournals.org
PCCW Web Content Filtering System (major Shopping malls) An online forum for LGBT communities: http://www.gaystation.com.hk/bbs/portal.php
An online radio for LGBT communities: http://www.gayradio.hk/index1.html
A podcast channel for Gay communities: http://www.gaychannel.hk/index
A blog on LGBT news: http://gay-bulletin.blogspot.com
A Taiwan LGBT photo forum: http://www.tt1069.com
A Chinese LGBT news website: http://www.365gay.com
Taiwan national central university's sex center: http://sex.ncu.edu.tw
Sex Study center under the Sociology department of Remin University in China: http://www.sexstudy.org/index.php
New York public library research guide on homosexuality: http://nypl.org/research/chss/grd/resguides/gay/index.html
Gay and Lesbian study in Chicago University: http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/su/gaylesb
Yale University Gay and Lesbian study index: http://www.library.yale.edu/rsc/gayles/index.html
Government Wi-Fi Filter An online forum for LGBT communities: http://www.gaystation.com.hk/bbs/portal.php
A podcast channel for Gay communities: http://www.gaychannel.hk/index
A Taiwan LGBT photo forum: http://www.tt1069.com
A Mainland China Gay and Lesbian photo forum: http://bbs.sou-tong.org
An Asia based Gay community website: http://www.fridae.com
A Lesbian story telling and friends’ meeting platform: http://herstory.ws
Taiwan national central university's sex center: http://sex.ncu.edu.tw
Pornography (Hospital Authority) A LGBT online TV channel for advocating equal rights: http://www.gdottv.com
A Lesbian coalition in Hong Kong: http://geocities.com/wcofhk
no info

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