Australian Internet blacklist prompts concern
A whistle-blower organization claims a secret list of Web sites that Australian authorities are proposing to ban includes such innocuous destinations as a dentist’s office. Australia’s government denied that the list published by renegade Web site Wikileaks.org was the same as a blacklist run by the Australian Communications and Media Authority, or ACMA. However, a manager at the dentist’s office said the ACMA had confirmed her site’s inclusion on the ban list.
The list in question is provided to the creators of Internet filtering software that people can opt to install on their computers. But Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has proposed mandating that Australian Internet service providers implement the list, which would make Australia one of the strictest Internet regulators among democratic countries. Several Internet providers are conducting trials of the filter through June. The authority says the list largely contains the addresses of Web sites promoting child pornography and sexual violence, but it has refused to release its contents publicly.
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