No, there is no filter as far as i know, the farther out from the starting system you are the fewer people you will see, if you follow the ingame news bullitens they will mention the ( hotspots ) in the galaxy where there is fighting between alliances etc, a lot of people will head to those places for the pvp/pve fighting in the low/high fighting areas, i was down in Sorbago when there was trouble there, but now the ingame news has changed and the trouble spots have moved elswhere, so a lot of people will always watch the news and travel there for the action.
