Intellectual Property Law

WikiLeaks Exposes Australian Web Blacklist

By Ryan Singel, Kevin Poulsen, Sarah Lai Stirland, Kim Zetter, and David Kravets

WikiLeaks on Thursday exposed a secret blacklist of web pages the Australian government reportedly is considering permanently filtering from the internet.

The list of some 2,395 web pages, the authenticity of which the Australian authorities dispute, includes the usual suspects of sites pertaining to child pornography, extreme violence and even bestiality. But not all the sites are offensive, and include links to rank-and-file pornography, YouTube videos, poker sites, WikiLeaks entries and even URLs to a Queensland dentist and dog-boarding kennel.

"History shows that secret censorship systems, whatever their original intent, are invariably corrupted into anti-democratic behavior," WikiLeaks said in a statement. "This week saw Australia joining China and the United Arab Emirates as the only countries censoring WikiLeaks."

The disclosure highlights growing threats to an open internet from public and private entities.

Beyond the obvious online censorship in China, Russia, Thailand and elsewhere, the Recording Industry Association of America is seeking to ban copyright scofflaws from the internet altogether. In the United States and abroad, governments and Hollywood are moving to shutter BitTorrent tracking services like The Pirate Bay, whose four founders are awaiting a verdict in their criminal copyright infringement trial.

The federal government in Australia wants to force all ISPs to use the list to censor the internet for everyone. It's allegedly the same list that vendors of filtering software get from the Australian Communications and Media Authority.

Child Wise, an international child protection charity based in Australia, said the list's publication is bad for children and the person who exposed it should be jailed.

"Every 15-year-old boy in the country is going to be after this porn list," said Bernadette McMenamin, the group's executive director. "The person who's done this should be prosecuted and jailed for effectively disseminating and promoting child pornography."

"The leak and publication of prohibited URLs is grossly irresponsible," Communications Minister Stephen Conroy told The Australian. "It undermines efforts to improve cyber-safety and create a safe online environment for children."

Conroy attempted to cast doubt on the authenticity of the leaked list by highlighting discrepancies in the blacklist's size. While the leaked list contains 2,395 banned web pages, he said the government's blacklist contains about 1061 links.

See Also:

• Wikipedia Blocks British Editors Amid Censorship Flap
• Net Censorship Law Struck Down Again
• Censorship Group Removes Wikipedia Blacklisting
• Deadly Earthquake Doesn't Shake China's Internet Censors
• FCC Free Wireless Spectrum Equals Censorship Technology Bonanza ...
• Video Shows How Pakistani YouTube Censorship Spread
• Australia Censors Wikileaks Page
• YouTube Agrees to Help Government Censors
• U.S. Funded Health Search Engine Blocks 'Abortion'
• Iran: Our Internet Censorship Is Atomic-Strength
• Public Satellite Images May Need Censorship, Satellite Spy Chief ...
• Pakistan's Accidental YouTube Re-Routing Exposes Trust Flaw in Net ...

Full post as published by Threat Level on March 19, 2009 (boomark / email).