404 Day 2023: Date, History, Facts, Activities

April 4 is celebrated as 404 Day. Activists from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) created 404 Day as a campaign to inform the public that the Internet, long referred to as the “information superhighway,” is riddled with congestion and deteriorating infrastructure, particularly in public schools and libraries where children have access. To comply with the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA), public libraries and public schools have been blocking and blacklisting websites for over a decade. In exchange for government funding, the law encourages public libraries and schools to censor child pornography, obscene, or “harmful to children” images from their Internet connections.

The background of 404 Day

404 Day is observed on April 4 to raise awareness about Internet filtering in public schools and libraries across the United States. The Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) is a well-intentioned but defective regulation that ties federal funding for public schools and libraries to screening for child pornography and anything obscene or harmful to children. Unfortunately, inadequate and converted filtering technologies and overly aggressive filtering implementations result in the filtering of constitutionally protected speech, among other problems.

Unfortunately, extreme interpretations of CIPA have led to excessive and unwarranted censorship in public libraries, often because libraries go beyond the legal limits of CIPA when establishing content filters out of fear of breaking the law. Students and library patrons across the nation are frequently and needlessly denied access to constitutionally protected websites, such as art museum and health-related websites.

According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (E.F.F.) and other proponents of internet freedom, part of the problem is that web filters designed to shield children from obscene content, such as pornography, also block a variety of informative, useful, and non-porn websites. This includes genuine keyword conflations that prohibit pages about poultry “breasts” or breast cancer, in addition to Shakespeare. It also targets content that authorities consider “inappropriate,” such as non-mainstream religions such as Wicca or Native American spirituality, L.G.B.T.Q. information, underage tobacco use, and sexual health. This, according to the E.F.F., violates the First Amendment. This is why the E.F.F. is encouraging librarians, students, and concerned library patrons across the nation to participate in 404 Day to bring attention to banned websites and internet censorship in libraries. Mark your calendars for 404 Day to encourage your peers to blog about it, share it on social media, and assist the Electronic Frontier Foundation in bringing censorship in libraries and schools to light. Even though CIPA is almost a decade old, internet filtering in libraries is not permanent. Working together, we can raise awareness and draw attention to this crucial issue.

404 DAY ACTIVITIES

Investigate your neighbourhood

Determine whether or not your local libraries and public institutions conduct excessive screening. Inform the appropriate authorities.

Share information about 404

Be sure to raise awareness if your local libraries and public institutions employ excessive filtering. Inform your family members and acquaintances. Utilize the hashtag #404Day on social networking sites. The more individuals who become aware of this, the better.

Others must be taught the norms.

To obtain government funding, the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) requires schools and libraries to restrict access to specific websites containing indecent and pornographic images. Inform your peers about this issue and rally them to support the cause.

5 INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT 404

The 404 Not Found response status code indicates that the server could not locate the requested resource.

According to urban legend, 404 was named after a room at CERN that contained the first web servers.

In addition to being a reminder of technology and the web, the 404 should have broad appeal.

The error has been immortalised in comic books and T-shirts, making it a more accessible and relevant aspect of what was once considered nerd comedy but is now a part of daily life.

There are currently numerous websites with creative 404 error pages.

404 DAY DATES

Year	Date	Day
2023	April 4	Tuesday
2024	April 4	Thursday
2025	April 4	Friday
2026	April 4	Saturday
2027	April 4	Sunday