About two months ago, Singapore’s digital Robin Hood, Steven Goh, created a simple Chrome extension to bypass the government’s filter blocking adult content websites and torrent downloading platforms like The Pirate Bay.
The chrome extension is called Go Away MDA.
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Goh is back with a similar Chrome Extension, except this one is catered to users in the United Kingdom (UK).
The Chrome browser extension, called Go Away Cameron, can also circumvent the “porn filters” being implemented by internet service providers in the UK.
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Why the need for a bypass such as Go Away Cameron?
British PM David Cameron announced recently in July that all UK households are to have their access to online pornography ‘blocked’ unless they choose to ‘opt in’. He said these ‘family-friendly’ filters are important to keep children from stumbling across hardcore legal pornography.
BT and the other major UK ISPs have signed up to the government’s campaign to protect children from pornography. BT is a British multinational telecommunications services company headquartered in London, United Kingdom, and is one of the largest telecommunications services companies in the world.
The joint government campaign will see 95 percent of houses in the UK connected to the internet choosing whether to switch on filters by the end of 2014.
The four major internet companies in the UK have begun to introduce the mandatory filters to users based on the government edict.
To circumvent that, Go Away Cameron was released and designed to bypass the censorship. Users simply install the extension and can then browse all of the pornography and sex education sites they like, rendering all the filters useless.
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Is it legal?
According to the creator, GAC is essentially a smart proxy service, which is not illegal. Goh also claims that the service is even safer than you using any unknown Hotspot Shield, or surfing websites through the random web proxy.
The launch of the Chrome extension has been received with mixed reviews, and has been featured on several publications around the world. The Telegraph reported that the browser extension is a variant of a tool the creator built to get around government filters in Singapore, and it’s somewhat disheartening that the same kind of technology is now needed to combat internet censorship in the UK. CNet UK also cautioned users to install the plug in at their own risk.
“But be warned, as with anything you get from the Internet, you do so at your own risk.”
What was the motivation behind the creation of GAC, especially when the creator is based in Singapore? Goh told The Reg: “I strongly disagree with a censored internet, especially one that is implemented on a government-basis, opt-out or not. As a programmer, I actually have an ability to say no, which is through Go Away Cameron.”
Photo: David Cameron; AFP
Original story by: Vulcan Post
