ARN

Australia's Web blacklist leaked

Data reveals government has blocked legitimate businesses

The secretive Internet filter blacklist held by the communications watchdog ACMA has been leaked, revealing the government has understated the amount of banned Web pages by more than 1000.

Multiple legitimate businesses and Web sites have been banned including two bus companies, online poker sites, multiple Wikipedia entries, Google and Yahoo group pages, a dental surgery and a tour operator.

Betfair CEO Andrew Twaits was furious the government has potentially annexed tens of millions of dollars in revenue after its Betfair.com gambling site was blacklisted.

The blacklists were reportedly leaked by a Web filter operator to wikileaks which has published the full list of banned URLs.

Outraged privacy advocates say the government has effectively lied about the amount of URLs included in the blacklists, totalling more than 2300, and the type of content which it would ban.

Electronic Frontiers Association (EFA) spokesman Geordie Guy said the list, dated August last year, would now be far more extensive in both the amount of URLs banned and the type of content included.

“The list is quite a bit bigger than what we have been led to believe; we were told it contained about 1600 pages in its current incarnation, and ACMA reports have claimed as low as 1300,” Guy said.

“Because this is a secret that has been leaked, everyone will be after it.”

“Every Australian will want to know what they were not they were considered so irresponsible to not leave alone.”

Guys said the leakage is proof that the list will be continually leaked if the Internet content filters are enforced, which he said will completely undermine its effectiveness.

Users republishing the banned Web sites will effectively break the law and risk an $11,000 fine from the watchdog.

Nominations for the 2012 ARN IT Industry Awards open on Tuesday, June 12.

More about: EFA, Google, Wikipedia, Yahoo
References show all

Comments

1

Anonymous

Thu 19/03/2009 - 16:49

k

2

Are you sure...???

Thu 19/03/2009 - 18:41

The leaked list??

I believe that you should verify whether this is indeed the ACMA blacklist, at the moment it is only a claim, and I see no proof of it's veracity.

That would also render many of the comments here and across the media as somewhat too hasty to jump on some bandwagon or the other.

Some entries suggest that it is at least seeded with false entries, which would make dummies of those attacking it today...

3

Anonymous

Sat 21/03/2009 - 16:04

If the government doesn't release the black-list, then how do we verify? Another issue with censorship arises.

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
Users posting comments agree to the ARN comments policy.
Login or register to link comments to your user profile, or you may also post a comment without being logged in.
Related Coverage
Related Whitepapers
Latest Stories
Community Comments
Tags: ACMA, internet content filter
ARN Directory | Distributors relevant to this article
Aquion , Avnet Technology Solutions
rhs_login_lockGet exclusive access to ARN's news, research and invitation only events.
ARN Distributor Directory
Find distributors by name | vendor | location
Channel Deals
/deals/aca-pacific/415_bonus-500-gift-card-with-every-sgi-is5000-sp-s
ACA Pacific

Bonus $500 Gift Card with Every SGI IS5000-SP Storage Subsystem. Ends June 30th, 2012.

More details »
ARN Vendor Directory
Find vendors by name | category

iAsset is a channel management ecosystem that automates all major aspects of the entire sales,marketing and service process, including data tracking, integrated learning, knowledge management and product lifecycle management.