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Virgin Media Censorship: TV Software Sees Offence In Charles D**kens And A***nal

Virgin Media

Huffington Post UK   First Posted: 19/12/11 17:24 Updated: 19/12/11 18:38

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Virgin has apologised after overzealous profanity checking software began censoring mention of Charles Dickens and Arsenal football club.

The new system, which automatically scans the Virgin TV programme guide, also saw offence in mention of Alfred Hitchcock and singer Jarvis Cocker.

The BBC Four show The History Of Canals showed up at The History of Ca**ls and the censorship was extended to the quiz show Never Mind The Buzzc**ks.

A Virgin Media spokesman said the glitch, which occurred over the weekend, has since been fixed.

No doubt he had a gleam in his eye as he added: “Over the weekend a temporarily over-zealous profanity check took offence at certain programme titles.

“The altered titles have been swiftly an*lysed and we’re fixing any remaining glitches.”

Singer Jarvis Cocker also felt the wrath of the profanity software

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Pozz100
1 Fans
08:41 on 20/12/2011
Any hope of censoring out Ed Balls?
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JRWaddy
19 Fans
07:04 on 20/12/2011
The whole of this problem is that it is not the word in itself that is offensive at all.
It is how any given word is interpreted by its intention & how it is recieved.
Simply this cannot, does not, come across in print.
Censorship is wrong, Censorship by a computer program is even wronger !
It rhymes with rowlocks !
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Douglas McEwan
35 Fans
05:01 on 20/12/2011
What kind of intellectual dweeb wants software "protecting" them from the evil which can be found within the letters of Charles Dickens's filthy name?

A CHRISTM** CAR*** BY Charles ***sucker.

Wait! Could I get Christianity-checking software? I'd love to read A ******MAS CAROL by Charles Dickens, or get a Bible that is only the covers, with pages of astericks. How about church-eliminating software? How lovely the world with be with all the churches redacted.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
jwod211
39 Fans
01:44 on 20/12/2011
And I remember some Christian evangelical group which used software to automatically substitute "homosexual" for "gay" in their newsletter. A bit of a problem when reporting the feats of sprinter Tyson Gay. Ever hear of Olympic athlete Tyson Homosexual?
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CAPiITAIN
88 Fans
00:44 on 20/12/2011
What he can not afford a person to do the job?
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
stevesheff
57 Fans
00:40 on 20/12/2011
A few years ago, our son was looking up bus times so he put 'bus timetables' in his browser which rejected it because it identified the 'bus t ' in the phrase as 'bust' !
I wonder how their system responded to 'virgin' ?
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karen1963yorks
86 Fans
21:33 on 19/12/2011
The Nanny state is bad enough. Now we have a privet company doing it?
What a load of billhooks.
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Andywindy
0 Fans
22:05 on 19/12/2011
" Now we have a privet company doing it?"

Presumably they used a hedge fund then?
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karen1963yorks
86 Fans
23:47 on 19/12/2011
Virgin have branches everywhere
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sand171
13 Fans
21:13 on 19/12/2011
Perhaps he can spend the 400 odd million he saved on buying our Northern Rock, to clean up the software.
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dkellyscotland
6 Fans
20:24 on 19/12/2011
Not like the good old days, when Virgin went to court to defend the use of 'bollocks' on an album cover.
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martin d
on a mission to crush daily mail readers
128 Fans
19:49 on 19/12/2011
Gareth Hunt was responsible for this i believe
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GeeBee
72 Fans
01:06 on 20/12/2011
No I think it was his brother Mike. Or possibly their Irish cousin, Connie Lingus.
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earlsspg
61 Fans
19:43 on 19/12/2011
Laughable!
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Reality always bites
90 Fans
19:41 on 19/12/2011
If the software is that sensitive how the 'flip' does 'virgin' get passed?
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an seanchus mor
147 Fans
19:15 on 19/12/2011
Interesting that it didn't notice the new reading of a***nal queens park which ( and perhaps i'm over reading this and ignoring comma's) conjures up images not necessarily related to football or are they?. At least it demonstrates that the era of our robotic skynet overlords is a long way off.
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indlovubill
29 Fans
18:38 on 19/12/2011
Lots of words and stuff banned on here, try mentioning the cee aye a for example.
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karen1963yorks
86 Fans
21:36 on 19/12/2011
Do you mean you cant mention the CIA? If you mention the CIA does that mean your comment wont be posted?
Just for mentioning the American Central Intelligence Agency?
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indlovubill
29 Fans
00:57 on 20/12/2011
Yours got through no problem, must be a particular combination of words because whenever I've mentioned the said organisation the comment isn't posted.
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SwissRon
17 Fans
18:29 on 19/12/2011
Haha the best one I heard was a council email system that was upgraded, and nobody was getting any emails. It was SCUNTHORPE council.....:)
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karen1963yorks
86 Fans
22:43 on 19/12/2011
In a way that is true. About 10 years ago My Brother lived in Scunthorpe and AOL would not let him join because it would not allow him to type his address in. PS
CIA C.I.A. C I A See 2 postings above CIA!!!
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