PSA: I was at a college library in Madison last month and saw their internet filter list...

They had a whole page of blocked image search terms, mostly meme formats from 2020. The librarian said it was a new rule from the school board to 'reduce distractions'... but half the list was just political cartoons turned into memes. It felt like they were blocking ideas, not just silly pictures. Has anyone else seen filters that seem to target a certain kind of joke?

3 comments

3 Comments

patricia_wells3mo ago

Honestly that part about blocking ideas not just silly pictures really got me. I used to think internet filters were just about keeping people on task. Tbh seeing a list that's mostly political stuff turned into memes changes my mind. It feels less like stopping distractions and more like picking what jokes are okay. That's a weird line for a library to draw.

iris_rivera443mo ago

Yeah, my friend had something like that happen at her community college. She tried to look up a picture of that 'this is fine' dog for a class project about stress, and it was blocked for being a meme. The librarian told her the filter word list was updated to catch 'non academic' images, but that dog is everywhere in articles about burnout. It just felt like they were blocking a whole way people talk about serious stuff now, you know?

miller.avery2mo ago

That list of mostly 2020 political memes is super specific though. I mean, if it was just general meme blocking you'd see stuff about the distracted boyfriend or the woman yelling at cat too, right? The fact they curated it around a certain election year is what gets me. Was the librarian able to tell you if any students or faculty got to have a say in what went on the list, or was it just handed down from the school board? Cause if it's the latter, it really sounds like someone up the chain had a problem with how people were making jokes about certain topics during that time, not just the format itself. Idk, maybe I'm reading too much into a blocked terms list, but it feels like a quiet way to steer what kind of conversations are even possible on campus.