Web blocker breaks the law

Hundreds of UK companies could face prosecution for using an American computer firewall system that blocks all references to gay people.

The filter, created by US technology company SonicWall, gives employers the option to block access to websites simply because they “promote or cater to gay and lesbian lifestyles.”

Websites that are blocked include gay equality charity Stonewall, Amnesty International’s gay group, a Citizens Advice Bureau guide to civil partnerships and even the newly-relaunched PinkPaper.com.

SonicWall admits that these sites can be blocked even though they do not contain sexually oriented material. The Terrence Higgins Trust is also blocked because the HIV charity’s site offers “sex education”.

Now a leading London employment lawyer says that British companies which use the gay-blocking setting could be in breach of the new Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations, intended to protect gays and lesbians from workplace harassment or bullying.

Joanna Wade of Palmer Wade Solicitors, a Clerkenwell-based firm specialising in work discrimination cases, says: “The new regulations say you shouldn’t be discriminated against or treated less favourably at work because of your sexual orientation. Denying access to certain websites just because they are about lesbian and gay issues – but not other websites – could constitute discrimination.

 

“If it is contributing to a hostile work environment it could also be claimed that an employee is suffering harassment.”

Contacted by the Pink Paper, SonicWall’s Anna Wright declined to say if the company would warn its UK customers they could be unwittingly breaking the law by using the gay-blocking setting.

But Peter Purton, equalities officer at the Trades Union Congress, says bosses need to know that using the setting could land them in trouble. He added: “Of course the blocking of gay sites could be an innocent consequence of using the firewall to block office-unfriendly material.

“But after it is brought to the employer’s attention a refusal to act could get them into legal hot water.”
“If it is contributing to a hostile work environment it could also be claimed that an employee is suffering harassment.”

Contacted by the Pink Paper, SonicWall’s Anna Wright declined to say if the company would warn its UK customers they could be unwittingly breaking the law by using the gay-blocking setting.

But Peter Purton, equalities officer at the Trades Union Congress, says bosses need to know that using the setting could land them in trouble. He added: “Of course the blocking of gay sites could be an innocent consequence of using the firewall to block office-unfriendly material.

“But after it is brought to the employer’s attention a refusal to act could get them into legal hot water.”