Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Ken Carnesi is the CEO and co-founder of DNSFilter. getty The internet can be a double-edged sword. Although it’s obviously opened up worlds of possibility, to put it mildly, it’s also made it easier for harmful material to proliferate and created a whole new industry of scams and cyberattacks. Since the invention of the internet, there’s been interest in trying to block or filter things out—to essentially limit what internet users can access. Whether it’s an employer trying to block explicit content from being accessed from company networks or an entire country trying to protect its residents from potentially predatory gaming sites, there can be many legitimate reasons for doing so. It can also run into thorny issues around censorship and control. Is there a way to balance blocking certain domains ethically, safely and functionally without infringing on free speech? And as new regulations take aim at this challenge, how do or don’t they get it right? Understanding DNS Filtering And Blocking When trying to stop users from accessing certain domains, there are two ways of doing this: DNS filtering and DNS blocking. These are more or less two sides of the same coin. To put it simply, “DNS blocking refers to a technique that restricts access to certain websites and online content.” DNS filtering is similar, but there’s a little more nuance to it; rather than outright blocking a domain, you gain the ability to filter bad or unwanted content within a domain. MORE FOR YOU Forget iOS 18 Millions Of iPhone Users Now Have RCS Messaging Microsoft Issues New Warning For 70 Of All Windows Users Samsung Issues Critical Update For Millions Of Galaxy Users From a practical standpoint, when we talk about these topics in terms of regulation, blocking is usually something that’s forced on you—something you didn’t have a hand in, like the Great Firewall of China. In contrast, filtering is more of a selective approach. Maybe you’re a parent or a teacher and you’ve decided there are certain types of material you don’t want children accessing from school networks. Regulations And DNS Blocking Several countries have recently passed or proposed legislation in an effort to protect citizens. Italy updated its anti-piracy law to fight unauthorized access to live sports content. France’s newly adopted SREN law requires web browsers and DNS resolvers to block websites the government has flagged. And in Norway, there’s a proposed bill that seeks to block unlicensed gambling sites (Norway has a state gambling monopoly, which muddies their motives a bit). These actions represent a slippery slope. It’s easy to understand why governments may want to protect their citizens from harmful material. But from a regulatory standpoint, DNS blocking can be too broad a brush. DNS blocking has a lot of social and political implications, particularly around free speech and due process. For instance, on the heels of the SREN law, French President Macron suggested DNS blocking could be used to block social media platforms during national crises. And sometimes, it’s just putting what I believe to be unfair responsibility on DNS providers—such as in the case of Quad9, where an injunction against them hinged on the idea that the DNS resolver was responsible for copyright-infringing activity and not the domain owner or registrar. That would have had huge repercussions for anyone worldwide who uses the internet. Similar attempts in the U.S. have mostly fallen flat. In fact, two proposed regulations that would have mandated DNS blocking—the Stop Online Piracy Act and the PROTECT IP Act—were ultimately shot down. Not only does regulation run the risk of overreacting and harming businesses, but it could be very expensive for whoever is forced to use DNS blocking. And it could lead to problematic limits on free speech. An Alternative: Looking At Filtering It’s a complicated issue. There are a lot of unsavory things we, as individuals, don’t want proliferating on the internet and certainly don’t want children accessing. But this can’t be regulated without introducing censorship or the ability to censor at a broad level. That makes the matter of who should be in charge of making these decisions murky. Is it governments? Organizations? It seems that hosting providers should ultimately be responsible, although that can also get legally iffy because they likely don’t see everything that goes through their system. It’s a slippery slope. Organizations must pay attention to this issue and take precautions. For those that want to take steps to protect their users and employees, filtering can offer multiple benefits, including more granular and nuanced control and security features. This makes it suitable for organizations with varied access control needs and compliance requirements. Filtering enables organizations to create access policies based on their specific needs. Requests are filtered based on content categories or specific domain names. This empowers the organizations to make the choices that are best for them. Filtering solutions often include features to help organizations comply with regulations or internal policies by blocking access to certain categories of websites, such as those related to gambling, adult content or unlawful activities. And some filtering solutions include caching mechanisms or performance optimizations to improve internet performance by resolving DNS queries faster or reducing network traffic. Ultimately, this puts it in the hands of the individuals or organizations where it should be. Due Diligence Needed The internet can seem like a bit of a Wild West, leading governments and other organizations to consider DNS blocking to protect citizens or government interests. But blocking access to specific domain names or IP addresses without considering content categories is a ham-fisted approach that may stand on shaky legal ground. And this shouldn’t be something governments are in charge of. DNS filtering offers a more subtle approach that still complies with company policies without threatening free speech. Companies need to conduct due diligence in this matter to make sure they’re choosing the solution that’s right for their situation. Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify? Follow me on LinkedIn. Check out my website. Ken Carnesi Editorial Standards Print Reprints & Permissions
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