AMMAN, Jordan—Last year we wrote about anti-porner Shelley Lubben’s nutty attempt to convince the country of Jordan to block online porn. After the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology had announced that it was considering the idea, Lubben’s Pink Cross Foundation dashed off a letter to officials urging them “to block porn sites." Now we learn the government has decided against such an extreme move, and instead will direct ISPs to offer people the option to block unwanted sites.
We have no reason to believe Lubben ended up influencing the government one way or the other. Rather, it seems as if officials simply came to their senses regarding a plan that most internet professionals think was bound to fail anyway. Indeed, the few Western countries such as Australia and England that have considered a similar content-based blockade have backed off after it became clear that more democratic alternatives (i.e. individual choice) would be more effective.
It was nonetheless a welcome sign that the government of Jordan recognized that "anyone who wishes has the right to visit such sites,” and instead of censoring sites has decided to promote a plan whereby “free services are offered… where the customer would request from service providers to block particular types of sites.” In stark contrast, Hamas late last year ordered “the ten internet service providers that service Gaza to begin filtering all porn sites.”
According to ammonnews.net, “The Jordanian government opted to leave blocking of sites to service providers per customers’ requests.” The article added that a draft law outlining the new plan is “in its final stages before being referred to the Legislation Bureau for legal opinion and endorsement from parliament.”
