Why Web Filters Don't Work: Penistone and the Scunthorpe Problem

Tom Scott · 3.6M views · 2016-06-06 · 3:37

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Overview

Tom Scott visits Penistone to explain the Scunthorpe problem, showing why naive web and profanity filters block innocent words.

On Hacker News

The go-to explainer whenever content filters wrongly flag innocent words, well made and short.

Recommended by 2 HN people across 2 months · HN mentions 2017–2026

Topics

Free speech, censorship & civil liberties Software architecture & design

What people said

thepete2 · 2020-05 · Recommendation
There is a video [0] about this censoring-"problem" by Youtuber Tom Scott. He talks about how it's impossible to implement with all edge-cases, easy to circumvent and thus usually not a good idea. Fittingly, the video is filmed in Peniston. [0] [VIDEO]
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colemannugent · 2017-04 · Recommendation
Tom Scott did a video on this: Why Web Filters Don't Work: Penistone and the Scunthorpe Problem - [VIDEO] It's well done, like the rest of his content.
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varun_ch · 2026-08 · Reference
With Tom Scott in particular, there’s a number of his videos that are kinda eerie to watch now with today’s LLM context eg. [VIDEO]
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Sources

Video by Tom Scott, played through YouTube.

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