Hamlet Filtered At Library For Containing “Violent Content”

Do you think that computers are getting way too smart for us these days? After all, a man who was at the the British Library recently tried to access the library’s Wi-Fi network, but he was denied access when he tried to check out an online version of Shakespeare’s Hamlet for one very basic reason – the text within contained “violent content”, or at least according to the filter. Author Mark Forsyth was busy trying to write his book in the library, where he then felt a need to look up a line from the Bard’s famous play, but hit a roadblock.

According to British Library, the fault did not lie with the library itself, but rather, the blame was shifted to a newly installed Wi-Fi service from a third-party provider. A security expert weighed in on the incident, touting that it showed off the “dysfunction” of internet filters. Of course, this is most probably an oversight, and according to spokesperson for the British Library, Hamlet had been made accessible ever since the complaint was lodged, and the new upgraded service comes with a web filter to ensure that inappropriate content such as smut and gambling sites cannot be viewed or accessed. A double edged sword, this is.

Edwin Kee
Categories: Computers
Tags: library