Donald Trump is a polarizing figure – you either love him or hate him – but he is impossible to ignore.
The Donald is everywhere.
Since joining the 2016 race for US President, Trump has dominated media coverage of the race, lifted TV ratings wherever he appears, and is way ahead of his rivals in the polls.
He has a way of speaking (blunt, off-the-cuff) that is perfect for soundbites, tweets, and headlines.
Although his pledge to “Make America Great Again” has inspired millions of fans, Trump’s many controversial statements – calling Mexican immigrants “rapists,” proposing a ban on Muslims and Syrian refugees entering the US, targeting the appearance of women, and so on – have made him a target.
Just as Trump has called for “closing that internet up” to keep terrorist groups like Islamic State from using “our internet,” some hackers have tried to do the same to him.
Back in July 2015, Trump’s Wikipedia page was defaced twice in one day by some anonymous editors who attempted to delete the whole entry (it was restored within minutes both times).
Last weekend, a hacker group calling itself New World Hackers, launched a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on Trump’s campaign website, temporarily knocking it offline.
Now there’s a much simpler, and perfectly legal, way to erase Trump from the internet.
If you really can’t stand seeing mentions of Trump as you browse news headlines and websites, there are several browser extensions that filter out mentions of his name for you.
Like web filters that many companies use to prevent their employees from accessing webpages with offensive, illegal or potentially malicious content, browser extensions like Trump Filter scan the pages you visit for Trump-related terms in order to block them.
Rob Spectre, the developer behind Trump Filter, says he wants to “erase” Trump from the internet because of his “toxic candidacy”:
... the Trump Filter is presented as part of the antidote for this toxic candidacy. This Chrome extension will identify parts of a web page likely to contain Donald Trump and erase them from the internet.
Spectre says he created the Trump Filter extension “out of a profound sense of annoyance and patriotic duty,” not at the behest of any party or candidate, and is not making any money from it.
If you install the Trump Filter extension on your Chrome browser, it makes references to Trump “disappear,” based on three levels of filtering – “mild,” “aggressive,” and “vindictive.”
With the extension set to “vindictive,” all headlines and sentences containing his name are removed.
As Spectre says, Trump Filter can’t be installed on your television, and it won’t delete images of Trump from the web either.
But Spectre says he hopes that, if enough people use his extension, it will send a strong message to the media that “America is ready to move on from this inveterate jackass.”
Some other Chrome extensions use a milder form of censorship to remove references to Trump, by replacing his name with amusing and insulting phrases.
One extension called Trump2Voldemort changes “Donald Trump” to “He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named” – a reference to the evil Lord Voldemort of the Harry Potter series of movies and books.
Another extension changes Trump’s name to “your drunk uncle at Thanksgiving.”
Of course, Donald Trump might not be the only thing on the internet you want to avoid.
Last month we wrote about a Chrome extension “Force Block” that covers any webpage containing potential spoilers for Star Wars: The Force Awakens with a black screen containing a warning.
Image of Donald Trump courtesy of a katz / Shutterstock.
Billy Reuben
Is he working on Kardashian, Jenner, Hillary Clinton and Obama filters, also?
John Zorabedian
There are filters for lots of people and those of all political stripes – they’re easy to find on the Chrome store. I’ve found filters to block out mentions of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, one that filters all the Bushes and Clintons, and another that blocks all news about the 2016 election.
Billy Reuben
Perhaps Trump’s own people deleted his Wikipedia entry. Remember: If you need to use Wikipedia to prove your position, it proves you have no position.
Slog
I believe in freedom of speech. What are you scared of? While I am no Trump fan, by no means do I want his speech stopped. While myself being a middle of a road guy, I find great issue with right wingers NOT being able to speak a left wing collages, that means 95% of them. They get lamb basted from immature children on a temper tantrum that call themselves collages students that are open minded and want everything to diverse. And your opinion is always right? NOPE. Grow the heck up and listen like an adult, if you disagree debate them then without acting like a spoiled brat baby. Don’t pull a Putin’esq move and stifle their speech.
Anonymous
You totally don’t understand what a filter is. It doesn’t affect anyone else’s experience but your own. It’s like a porn filter. It doesn’t keep anyone else from porn, just your computer blocks it.
David
I am an independent because both sides of the government have proven its inability to take action on many of the topics for which Trump is speaking about. He is very blunt and many times over the top but all Americans need to unite now more than ever. Our jobs are being outsourced to other countries, new media regulations must be implemented, students from other countries are coming to our universities most for free. Then staying here and hiring their own. Attacks to both our physical and cyber security continue to increase at alarming rates. I have been in IT for over 20 years and as I have seen the increase in cyber attacks, I want to advance my career to specialize in cyber security. I am to old to join the military but I am eager to help combat the increasing cyber threats through creating awareness and collaborating with others. The above article wants us to create filters to block and eliminate Trump. He is not the enemy! Imagine what we all could accomplish if we refocus our knowledge and develop ways to eliminate the real threats to our freedom! Travel without fear, send our children to school without fear, go to a movie without fear, cheer our sports teams without fear. Enjoy life without fear. Like my reply, comment on it and add your opinion but be a part of the solution and not the problem.
Nu Joi
Trump is great I hope he wins
Slog
LIke I said a I am not a big Trump fan, BUT as it looks now with what is happening in the world, I think he is the best person for the job. I don’t like both sides of the isle. but the left scares the crap out of me. They lack any common sense when ever evil is involved. Evil crushes wimpy people with ease. The blue party will get us all crushed from their total lack of understanding of evil. Political correctness will topple Germany, it has already started. And Trump would say “Told You So” Again Trump is a head of the curve.
Paul Ducklin
Guess you won’t need the filter :-)
TonyG
and I thought a “Trump Filter” would get rid of the unpleasant smell from flatulence…
JR
I don’t see you offering-up an option to block Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton. Thanks for being so impartial… NOT.
John Zorabedian
This article was about filters targeting Mr. Trump, but you make a fair point.
It’s easy to find filters on the Chrome store for blocking out mentions of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and many more.
You can filter just about anything to make sure the news is biased just the way you like it!
Ronald Hearn
What will the filterites do when Mister Trump is elected President of the United State? We don’t filter out Our Alleged President, Obama. We are listening to him to hear him lie to us so we can try to avoid completely losing our God inspired Constitution. Those who support Obama have biological filters in their brains. As Jesus asked us to: Please pray for them.
Steven
Why should I comment – you never printed a single thing I wrote – ever.
I should dump this dumb advertisement – I use a better product I use Norton Internet security
Mark Stockley
Hi Steven,
It looks to me like we’ve published nine of your comments (based on the email address you supplied with the comment above). There were three in 2013, one in 2014, four in 2015 and the one above.
The last one even got a thumbs up.
https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2015/12/16/police-could-hack-any-device-even-toys-under-uk-surveillance-draft-bill/#comment-4472390
Have you tried Sophos Home? It’s brand new, very good and totally free.
https://www.sophos.com/en-us/lp/sophos-home.aspx