Are Political Blogs Being Censored By Hillsborough County Libraries Update

John Stines of the Hillsborough County library system sent me this email.

Thank you for making me aware of your concerns related to the
accessibility of certain blogs through the use of library computers.
The particular blogs that you mentioned are not blocked by our Websense
filtering software and should be available. Staff members have accessed
the blogs this morning using library computers to verify this. Due to
the growth of the number of computers available to library users and the
increasingly heavy demand for Internet access the library is
experiencing a critical lack of bandwidth.

This may have been the reason that you were not able to reach the
particular sites you mentioned. Had it been blocked by Websense, you
would have received a Websense blocking message. I apologize for any
inconvenience and encourage you to seek assistance from staff if you are
unable to access these sites on library computers.

In an effort to improve services we are working to secure a new service
provider and towards increasing our bandwidth and alleviating this
issue.

Mark Spense of Tampa Pirate confirms that several local Vox Populi's story that several local political blogs can not be read on Hillsborough County library computers. It's not just blogs on Blogger. The State of Sunshine and Spence's site are hosted on Wordpress.

I can't see why the county would go through so much trouble for a few political blogs. Jim Johnson and I are the only two that receive media attention. Jim's active in GOP politics and I am known in national lefty blogger circles. Neither of us are blog superstars.

I am still confused about what's going on. I report more when the information becomes available.

Update: Vox Populi has written a blog post on the story.