From December 6, 1995 ACLU CYBER-LIBERTIES UPDATE ... * AOL Censors Gay Video Titles, Finds "Buns" Acceptable but "Studs" Too Sleazy AOL customers won't be surprised to hear that the AOL censors are at it again. AOL has long had a policy of screening certain "dirty words" from its public bulletin boards and chat groups. Last week, The Boston Globe reported that AOL had banned the word "breast." The company agreed to reverse the policy after "several days of on-line protests by irate breast cancer patients." Richard A. Knox, "Women Go Online To Decry Ban On Breast,'" The Boston Globe, 12/1/95. Another example of AOL's attempt to use censorship to create a "family-friendly" service was recently brought to the ACLU's attention. Jeff Satkin is owner and operator of ATKOL Gay Videos, a mail-order gay video store headquartered in Plainfield, NJ. Last August, Jeff responded to AOL's bid for new business by signing up as an advertiser on "Downtown AOL" (DT AOL). AOL describes the site as "a virtual small business community where potential customers will come to browse and shop for products and services of all types." Jeff paid the advertising fee and sent AOL an electronic copy of his extensive mail-order video catalog for posting on the DT AOL site. Under the contract, AOL agreed to run the ad for a term of one year. According to Jeff, AOL posted the catalog in full for four weeks with no complaints. Then, in September, AOL sent Jeff a letter requesting that a huge percentage of titles in the ATKOL Video mail-order catalog be removed from the online version of the catalog that appeared on Downtown AOL. An AOL employee had gone through a printed version of the list and highlighted the offending titles that would need to be removed. The result is a hilarious but frightening example of arbitrary censorship. At the ACLU's suggestion, Jeff wrote to AOL and asked them to explain the guidelines they used for censoring his catalog. After considerable delay, AOL wrote back the following: "DT AOL does not have any written standards for its advertisements. As the manager of the area I determine whether an advertisement has the look and feel that best fits our environment. I edited the file you sent and removed any titles which I felt didn't reflect the image we would like to project. I may have missed a few as you pointed out, so feel free to remove those as well if you would like." Here are just a few examples of AOL's arbitrary rating system as applied to the ATKOL Video catalog. (And remember, these are **titles only**!! -- no pictures, no cover art, no narrative -- just titles.) AOL Says AOL Says "Thumbs Down" -- "Thumbs Up" -- These titles were censored as These titles were not censored -- too sleazy for AOL!: they must have had "the look and feel that best fits the AOL environment": A Brother's Desire A Family Affair Advanced Disrobics Lockerroom Fever All About Sex ABC's of Sex All the Right Stuff All Men Do It! As the Bed Turns Bed Tales Bare Bones Bareback Bedroom Eyes Bedroom Lies Bi N Large Bi-Conflict The Big Nasty The Big Drill Bigger Than Huge Bigger Than Life Black Magic Magic Choices Black Dudes Blond Lovers The Boy Next Door Boys from New Jersey Brotherly Love Brother Trouble Buns N Hoses Bung Hole Buddies Dirty Pictures Dirty Picture Show Elements of Passion Passion By Fire Everybody Does It Every Which Way Filth Dirty Laundry Gayracula Gay Tarzan Hot Lunch Hot Stuff Latin on the Loose Latin Lust Leather Angel Leather Report Man in Motion The Man Inside Men in Shorts Men with Tools Night Maneuvers Nights in Black Leather Power Grip Power Trip Rican Christmas Latino Nights The Rites of Spring The Rites of Summer Skin Deep Skin Tight Spring Semester Spring Break Sunday Brunch Summer Heat Tough and Tender Tough Iron White Trash White on White Wild Dreams Wild Thing You Are Not Alone Alone and Private Titles with any of the following words, regardless of the full title, were also censored: "pleasure," "black," "hard," "boys," "jock," "Rican," "sex," "stud," "straight," "young." A few more interesting facts about the case should be noted. First, while AOL has never publicized the list of "vulgar" words that it routinely screens from its public sites, most of the screened words are classic profanity and "dirty words." None of the titles that AOL censored from ATKOL Video's list contain those "dirty" words. Second, it is clear that AOL's action was an overreaction to the recent federal law enforcement raids on alleged child pornographers using AOL -- Jeff received the letter shortly after the raids made the headlines. But *none* of Jeff's videos contain child porn. And again -- the info in the catalog was *titles only* and contained no substantive material at all. Third, it appears that AOL's arbitrary standards may be a little homophobic. While "Wet and Wild" was an unacceptable title in a gay video catalog, AOL ran an ad in Downtown AOL for Affinity Teleproductions, Inc. that read: "Now you can join exotic Anna Nicole Smith on her sensuous Edenquest adventure in her exclusive photo portfolio. . . . Anna Nicole Smith "The Collectors Set" features ten eye opening Edenquest photographs in vivid color . . . . It's all Anna Nicole Smith wet and wild drenched in sun and powder sugar sand. "With Love, Anna Nicole" is your personal trip to paradise with the world's most exciting woman in her most provocative photos ever." The troubles experienced by ATKOL Video when it legitimately tried to do business with AOL just proves once again that censorship rules are by nature arbitrary and unfair -- whether imposed by the government or by private industry.