The above image occured while using my mobile to browse the internet VIA Bunnings free WIFI the other day.
We do live in a free country … but it kind of reminds me of China and their “big internet firewall” basically blocking access to anything that presents a slightly different view.
The website in question is Spiritual Wisdom Magazine and if you check the website out for yourself, there is nothing on the website that is inappropriate.
Trying to access the website once was met with the above page … yet, if I tried to view the website several times … my network MAC address (which is specifically related to my phone) was completely banned from Bunnings’ WIFI network altogether.
My Final Words …
IMO – it is wrong for Bunnings to block each and every website that has ‘alternative beliefs’.
This isn’t the 1900′s that we live in anymore. People do have beliefs other than what Christianity teaches to be true. Although – since I am using Bunnings WIFI (for free I might add) – I must abide by the restrictions that they place on the service.
If I had more time, I would’ve liked to have tested their network filters out.
It appears that these filters block access to ‘new age’ sites as well as those with spiritual beliefs. But what about Muslim sites or sites that support the general Muslim view? Does Bunnings also block them as well?
and NO, I’m not talking about the extremist Jihad sites, but actually about the proper Muslim faith – which is centred around living life in a peaceful way. Again – I wish I had more time to test their network.
But these restrictions certainly give an overall picture of the corporate structure of Bunnings – and the image that they wish to project out there to the general public.
This company desires for a wholesome Christian view … but we do live in a multi-cultural society.
Enough said.
It appears that … in late 2015, the Spiritual website that I linked to in this post was hacked.
I consider this to be true, since there has been a ‘spammy’ post added to their blog by a fake user. there is also a URL in that post which is spam.
Looking back over my own website logs, I can see substantially more hits (in the 100′s within 5 days) on this exact post (on my own blog that you are reading at the moment) …. from Russian .RU IP addresses’s … This all happened in the week before the Spiritual Magazine website was compromised.
Perhaps the Spiritual website was compromised due to hackers discovering the website through the link here???? just a stab in the dark.
Earlier this week, I contacted the blog owner and let them know about the spammy post, but as yet – they haven’t removed the post (but I feel only part of this issue, perhaps a compromised wordpress site?).
Also worth noting … the spiritual website was hacked over 1 year after I posted this … so certainly rules out any speculation as to that being a cause as to why Bunnings blocked the site altogether.