Rainbow Wellington has made a complaint to the Human Rights Commission over McDonald's blocking of a number of queer websites on its free WiFi service, however the fast food company is confident it's not in breach of the Human Rights Act. In January after GayNZ.com Daily News broke the news that a number of glbti sites were banned on the service, Rainbow Wellington discovered its own site was among those unavailable. The human and civil rights group's site was unblocked after it contacted McDonald's; however it feels this is not the end of the matter. "There appears to be a discriminatory practice in place here which is based, in part, on the sexual orientation of the customers of this company," Rainbow Wellington Chair Tony Simpson has written to Chief Human Rights Commisisoner Rosslyn Noonan. "This is one which, in our view, needs to be looked into by the Human Rights Commission as a body charged with overseeing the human rights legislation in this country." Simpson says Rainbow Wellington has no argument with McDonald's' motivation in seeking to shield children from pornography, but believes the contracted filtering software is causing McDonald's to breach two sections of the Human Rights Act, which forbid discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation and prohibit such discrimination in the provision of goods and services. "By providing a service which is not immediately accessible to all but which prevents some people from accessing it on the basis that certain key words or phrases identify gay or lesbian sites (which might carry pornography but, as our own instance shows do not automatically do so) McDonald’s, it seems to us, is in breach of these two sections of the Act," Simpson writes. "That their motives in doing so are laudable is irrelevant. McDonalds are not empowered to enforce the provisions of legislation designed to protect children from pornography or other objectionable material. That is a legal role reserved for the censor. "Nor in adopting a business practice to that effect are they free to also include within its compass on a broad basis a practice which prevents gltbi customers, on the basis of what is in practice their sexual orientation, from accessing legitimate websites. "If they want to protect children from accessing pornographic images they must find some other way to do so within the compass of the connection service they offer." Simpson adds Rainbow Wellington believes McDonald's is also in breach of the Bill of Rights Act's provision that everyone has the right to seek, receive, and impart information and opinions of any kind in any form. "We have taken this matter up with McDonalds.They have expressed their confidence that they are not in breach of the Human Rights Act. This exchange is attached. With respect, we do not endorse this view," Simpson finishes. McDonald's tells GayNZ.com Daily News it's communicated with Rainbow Wellington a number of times over the past few months, and confirms it unblocked the group's website upon request. "Rainbow Wellington also approached McDonald's recently indicating that they believed we were in breach of the Human Rights Act. We subsequently sought advice from the Human Rights Commission on this matter and, following us receiving that advice, we are confident we are not in breach of the Act. We have communicated this to Rainbow Wellington," the company says. McDonald's says access to its free WiFi is contingent on a website containing suitable family friendly material. "Sites that would not meet this criteria include any website containing sexually explicit images, gambling websites and alcohol websites. At launch, the filtering software picked up some sites, including Family Planning NZ and Rainbow Wellington. They were initially blocked due to the software’s filtering process, and we have been happy to remove the block on any sites that our customers ask us to review." McDonald's says it has been working closely with GayNZ.com, the New Zealand AIDS Foundation and Rainbow Youth as representatives of the glbt community on developing a formal Free WiFi policy, which is nearly complete.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Thursday, 19th May 2011 - 6:26pm