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Forbidden Web Site Restored at Hampton

By Erin L. Hill
Black College Wire

It's one of the largest black Web sites on the Internet, but Hampton University students were prohibited from accessing it.

BlackPlanet.com is an online community where registered members can design home pages with pictures, writing, music and wallpaper.

However, when students' pictures were swiped from their personal home pages and the creator(s') remarks superimposed on them, Hampton University installed a firewall to prevent the Hampton community from accessing the site from campus computers. That access was recently restored.

Jaaye Person-Lynn, a junior political science major from Inglewood, Calif., was one of the students targeted in what is known around the Hampton campus as "The BlackPlanet Incident."

Person-Lynn recalled that one of the Web pages said he looked like "a reject from a Lil' Bow Wow video" because he rode a scooter, and said he should get his hair braided more often.

However, he disagreed with having a firewall block the site.

"It really didn't say anything too negative about me, so I wasn't upset at all," Person-Lynn said. "It's like they [administration] are trying to censor the students. It's the Internet, and isn't bad; a couple people just used it for a bad act. It's not fair to punish thousands."

Roshawnda Walker, a sophomore computer science major from Gary, Ind., also disagreed with the firewall.

"There are some Web sites that are accessible that should have been blocked way before BlackPlanet," Walker said.

Employees in the Academic Technology Mall of the Harvey Library were not available for comment, but were unaware that students could access the site again until the student newspaper, The Hampton Script, brought it to their attention.

According to Vicomsoft, Ltd., a specialist in Internet connectivity and firewall software, organizations should have a strict security program that includes firewall protection.

Of course, Hampton students found a way to bypass the firewall simply by having individual modems dial in and out of the network. Those with a private Internet service such as America Online were able to access BlackPlanet.com.

Community Connect, Inc. launched BlackPlanet.com in September 1999. In just 11 weeks, the site said it registered more than 60,000 members and had more than a million daily page views. As of April 2002, BlackPlanet claimed more than 5.3 million registered members.

Community Connect is known for developing and publishing ethnic Web sites such as AsianAvenue.com and MiGente.com, which targets Latinos.

Erin L. Hill is a sophomore in print journalism at Hampton University and a copy editor at the Hampton Script.