THE Internet鈥檚 discussion groups are about to be flooded with junk postings
because the volunteers who normally keep this 鈥渟pam鈥� at bay have gone on
strike.
Nearly every topic imaginable鈥攆rom Elvis sightings to quantum
physics鈥攈as its own Internet discussion group. Together, the groups are
known as Usenet. Yet many of the postings made to Usenet groups have nothing to
do with the discussion topic. This spam includes advertisements for
get-rich-quick schemes or pornographic Web sites.
Most people who participate in Usenet discussions do not read the junk
postings because they are filtered out by programs put up by anti-spam
activists鈥攚ho also trace spammers and report them to their Internet
service providers. But earlier this month, 40 of the most active anti-spam
volunteers announced that they were downing tools.
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The strike is being coordinated by Chris Lewis, a computer consultant in
Ottawa, Canada. He says that too many Internet connection companies are failing
to take on their share of the burden of fighting spam.
He estimates that more than 1.3 million spam messages are posted to Usenet
every week. A similar number of messages are sent to cancel the spam鈥攚hich
means that these messages together make up 80 per cent of Usenet traffic. Anti-spam
volunteers staged a shorter, less extensive strike in June last year. Because of the
strike, legitimate messages to some discussion groups were outnumbered 50 to 1 by
junk postings.
Nevertheless, Internet service providers remain reluctant to take on the job
of controlling Usenet spam. 鈥淚t is difficult to assume that you know what people
do and do not want to see,鈥� says a British spokesman for UUNET-Pipex, one of the
world鈥檚 largest Internet companies.