My local library's Wi-Fi filter blocks more than I expected

I visited the downtown branch in Austin last week to look up some history articles for a project. Their public Wi-Fi blocked a site about the 1960s anti-war protests because it had the word 'protest' in the URL. The librarian told me the filter is set by the county IT department and they can't override it. I've seen this kind of thing before (my college did it too) but it feels different when a public institution does it. Has anyone else run into overly aggressive filters at libraries or schools? What did you do about it?

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1 Comment

wyatt13543m ago

Censorship by proxy, nice. That librarian probably has a lengthy list of banned words.