LANSING – In a decision that would draw hundreds of “likes” if posted on Facebook, the Michigan Senate has decided to open up its WiFi network to allow users access to social media sites like Facebook and Twitter and drop most other restrictions that had severely limited what sites users could visit.

The Senate has provided WiFi on its side of the Capitol and in the Farnum Building for close to 10 years, but has always strictly limited what sites users could access essentially to news and government. Anything involving sports, entertainment, recreation or social media was blocked.

With the advent of Facebook and Twitter, the grumbling picked up that the Senate was stuck in the technological equivalent of the Paleozoic Era, especially considering the House allowed access to commonly used sites with restrictions mostly limited to barring sites with pornographic content and other objectionable material.

Senate Secretary Carol Viventi said the Senate received a request to allow Twitter access, prompting a review of the Senate’s policy.

In the beginning, the Senate set up the restriction because it paid for a limited amount of bandwidth, and there was concern that visitors to the Biggby coffee shop next to the Farnum – which at the time had to pay for WiFi – would use up the bandwidth, Ms. Viventi said. For years now, however, Biggby has had free WiFi.

Over the years, other justifications were cited – concern about viruses as well as a sense that opening up access would serve no legitimate government purpose.

“We got asked and we just said well … people have so much free access now that we don’t have to worry about using our bandwidth, and there are work-related reasons why people may want to post on their Twitter accounts what we did or on their Facebook accounts,” Viventi said.

The new protocol blocks sites with adult content, sites promoting illegal activity, gaming, streaming radio/television/audio, violence, hate themes and academic cheating.

Otherwise, feel free to check the score of the Tigers game and tweet away.

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