‘Sinister and disturbing’: After it emerged gender-critical websites are being blocked on train wifi – our probe shows the scandal stretches far wider
- One in three networks are denying access to sites that raise trans issues
- Labour MP Rosie Duffield said this was ‘sinister and disturbing’
Many internet users are being blocked from looking at gender-critical websites on public wi-fi, it can be revealed.
A Mail on Sunday investigation found that one in three networks are denying access to sites that raise legitimate questions related to trans issues.
A senior MP said this was ‘sinister and disturbing’.
It follows reports about Great Western Railway’s onboard wi-fi blocking the website of human rights organisation Sex Matters, which campaigns for clarity about sex in law and policy. It had been flagged as being ‘associated with terrorism and hate’.
Our reporters visited 25 venues with accessible public wi-fi and found that eight blocked one or more gender- critical websites.
Labour MP Rosie Duffield said: ‘This is sinister and disturbing censorship. These firms must be doing well financially if they’re prepared to lose the custom of women.’
At three branches of Pret A Manger across London, the Women’s Rights Network and Transgender Trend’s websites were blocked (stock image)
At three branches of Pret A Manger across London, the Women’s Rights Network and Transgender Trend’s websites were blocked. Access to the latter was also blocked at the Science Museum in London, at retailer Uniqlo and on a London North Eastern Railway (LNER) train.
The Sex Matters site could not be accessed at Victoria, King’s Cross and Paddington train stations in London – and it was still impossible to visit it on Great Western Railway (GWR) trains.
READ MORE: Trans population may have been ‘significantly overestimated’ in 2021 census – raising fears focus on transgender issues is being ‘exaggerated’
Bosses at GWR said the site was blocked because AI scanners had deemed it to contain ‘adult’ content, most likely due to the repetition of the word ‘sex’.
But at least two other websites featuring the word ‘sex’ in their titles – Sex Positivity UK and Sexual Health Alliance – loaded quickly on the network.
Major internet service providers are required to adopt network-level filtering systems to prevent children from seeing unsavoury content.
But these can block harmless websites, too. Cybersecurity expert Daniel Card said criminals may have attacked gender-critical websites to ‘reclassify them’ as harmful.
Labour MP Rosie Duffield said: ‘This is sinister and disturbing censorship. These firms must be doing well financially if they’re prepared to lose the custom of women.’
Women’s Rights Network’s Claire Loneragan said: ‘Pret let us access porn sites. We could access another to buy guns. So we question why there must be safeguarding around sex-based rights.’
A Science Museum spokesman said: ‘We use a security system to protect visitors from potentially unsuitable content. We will follow up with the service provider.’
A Uniqlo spokesman said: ‘We do not knowingly filter gender-critical websites. We are speaking to our vendor to review the filters.’
LNER said: ‘Website categories are not determined by us, but by a filtering service. Such filters do not reflect our view of any site.’
Pret A Manger did not respond to a request for comment.
After being approached by the MoS, GWR bosses said they had asked for the blocked material to be reviewed by their filtering system. Just 24 hours later, the Sex Matters site was accessible on its trains.
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