CARNAL NATION

Mostly when you read stories about internet-filtering software on sex-positive and free-speech web sites, they are about errors in the filters, the evils of censorship, and the lack of sensitivity on the part of corporations.  This story started that way, with a report on Facebook that Peet's Coffee was blocking non-porn gay and lesbian sites as "pornography." However, this one took a twist when we tried to verify the story. Our test at the local Peet's (on Broderick St in San Francisco) let us surf any number of porn sites as well as non-porn gay and lesbian sites. No filtering software at all, weird.

All became clear when we talked to a Jean Lugo at Peet's corporate. It turns out they removed all blocking software from their stores in April in response to customer feedback. When they first installed the filters, they received a lot of customer complaints. Peet's tried to work with the software vendor to correct the issues, but eventually they reached the conclusion that the filter would never work right and wasn't really needed anyway. So why was the store in the Facebook post filtering gay sites? Human error—when they removed the software, that store was missed. Peet's has assured us that has now been taken care of.

CarnalNation runs on Peet's coffee, and we're really pleased they get it—having listened to their customers and done the right thing—because we really didn't want to have to boycott them.