Norton Censorship…

The whatnow?

• The TLDR: The Norton SafeWeb service is censoring websites that carry subversive opinions. Its actual job is to stop you going to fraudulent banking sites.

I’ve been using Norton 360 for ages, because its built on decent foundations. Part of the suite is a browser plug-in that checks each link you visit to make sure it’s legit. Its purpose is ostensibly to prevent you from visiting a fraudulent banking site, or a site that would download malware or whatever nefarious shit.

It’s been fine for years, but I noticed recently that I was getting the big red warning page when I visited blogs and self-published sites that give information that is in conflict with the approved narrative.

The example that sticks most prominently in my mind is Samizdatmagazine.co.uk which is a phenomenally good new periodical being put together by Ronan Maher who is an aspiring journo in the Delingpole mould, but with sounder instincts. In fact he’s been interviewed by Delingpole here and it’s a very good listen.

Anyway, this site is being censored by Norton as a ‘dangerous website’.

I’ve got a professional handle on IT security and in my estimation the only thing dangerous about the Samizdat website is that it’s an early prototype and is very clunky as a consequence. I expect that situation to improve.

The first 3 issues of the Samizdat periodical are available for free at the above link if you can find your way through the mess, but I can’t see them continuing to be free because they’re just so good. A dense, curated collection of thinkpieces of the kind you might have expected in the Spectator a decade ago before it decided to write for screechy women who couldn’t find their HRT patches.

I started to notice this Norton censorship hobgoblin from time to time as I clicked onto sites with opinions about covid, vaccines etc. It started about a month ago. It’s not being talked about on the Internet. At least not as far as google or duckduckgo are concerned.

A Voice for Men are complaining about it, but that is literally it.

So I cancelled my subscription, which was up for renewal. No £80 for you, fuck-face.

My feedback form explained my decision:

I’m not paying you money to hand over my browsing decisions to a blue-haired lesbian landwhale in California. 

You can check if your website (or one you like) is blacklisted by Norton at https://safeweb.norton.com/ 

Fuck Norton. I’ve scratched them (i.e. Symantec) off the list for our new AV solution at the office too. 4,000 endpoints, 400 servers. Not playing.

AJ