MPs deluged by wave of hardcore e-mails
Computer systems at Westminster are to be fitted with special filters to stop MPs being bombarded with explicit e-mails.
Hundreds have received unsolicited messages, including adverts for hard-core pornographic sites, in recent weeks. Other Commons staff have been sent similar messages.
Commons authorities have dismissed suggestions that MPs are being specifically targeted, but the problem has become so acute that they have ordered emergency action.
The Tory MP Michael Fabricant, chairman of the Commons Information Committee, said: "It isn't just the content of these e-mails that many MPs find offensive but the sheer volume, which is blocking inboxes and preventing constituents from making contact with their representatives." He said he hoped a filter system could be installed within two months.
A spokesman for the parliamentary communications directorate said: "Most MPs' e-mail addresses are in the public domain, and can therefore easily be targeted by unscrupulous companies."
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