Censorship - A Scenario

Censorship - A Scenario Most universities have an "appropriate use" policy that prescribes that their computers and systems are to be used for "educational purposes" only! Under this rubric, several institutions, prior to the advent of the World Wide Web, choose to limit student access to newsgroups. Particularly of concern were a large number of newsgroups with the prefix "alt.", meaning alternate, and in particular a subgroup "alt.sex." Within this group were many that provided the ability to exchange graphics (frequently of large size). With limited bandwidths, college and university Internet connections were being strained, and administrators were complaining that they were having a difficult time accessing "legitimate" facilities.

To overcome these perceived inappropriate uses several institutions chose, without informing the academic community, to filter newsgroup access so as to eliminate a large number of newsgroups. At Carnegie Mellon University this caused a massive confrontation that led to the formation of the "CAFE" (Coaltion for Academic Freedom of Expression) and the relaxation of the newgroup restrictions. However most institutions simply maintained their limits; it did not matter anyway - the WWW had provided an alternative of its own.