Starbucks wants the Third Place to be a more welcoming place. The Seattle-based global coffee giant is planning to take steps in 2019 to block customers from viewing pornography on free Wi-Fi in its stores.
According to reports Thursday, first in Business Insider, Starbucks is introducing a new tool that will prevent the viewing of explicit content over its Wi-Fi. The company stressed that such content has always violated its policy, but now a content-blocking solution will be put in place.
The move comes after years of pressure from Enough is Enough, an internet-safety organization which says the company failed to follow through on a promises to filter content two years ago. A new petition aimed at getting the company to act had more than 26,000 signatures on Thursday.
“While it rarely occurs, the use of Starbucks public Wi-Fi to view illegal or egregious content is not, nor has it ever been permitted,” the company said in a statement to GeekWire. “To ensure the Third Place remains safe and welcoming to all, we have identified a solution to prevent this content from being viewed within our stores and we will begin introducing it to our U.S. locations in 2019.”
The company declined to give details on the solution to Business Insider but said it tested multiple tools, hoping to avoid accidentally blocking unoffensive sites.
But two can apparently play that game.
NBC News reported that the vice president of YouPorn, a free pornographic video-sharing site and one of the 200 most-visited websites worldwide, responded to the action by Starbucks with a ban of his own. A memo was sent to staff saying that Starbucks products would not be allowed in company offices starting Jan. 1.
