Australian government secre - ImageShack

Australian government secret ACMA internet censorship blacklist, 6 Au... http://88.80.13.160/wiki/Australian_government_secret_ACMA_intern...
History shows that secret censorship systems, whatever their original intent, are invariably corrupted
into anti-democratic behavior.
This week saw Australia joining China and the United Arab Emirates as the only countries censoring
Wikileaks. We were not notified by ACMA.
In December last year we released the secret Internet censorship list for Thailand. Of the sites censored
in 2008, 1,203 sites were classified as "lese majeste" -- criticizing the Royal family. Like Australia, the
Thai censorship system was originally pushed to be a mechanism to prevent the child pornography.
Research shows that while such blacklists are dangerous to "above ground" activities such as political
discourse, they have little effect on the production of child pornography, and by diverting resources and
attention from traditional policing actions, may even be counter-productive. For a fascinating insider's
account, see My life in child porn.
In January 2009, the Thai system was used to censor Australian reportage about the imprisonment of
Harry Nicolaides, an Australian writer, who wrote a novel containing a single paragraph deemed to be
critical of the Thai Monarchy.
Most of the sites on the Australian list have no obvious connection to child pornography. Some have
changed owners while others were clearly always about other subjects.
Australian democracy must not be permitted to sleep with this loaded gun.
If Australia's "Senator for Censorship", Steven Conroy, has his way, Australia will be the first Western
country to have a mandatory Internet censorship regime.
When human rights activists push for transparent government and a life free from censorship, the retort
from developing world governments will rightly be "haha... what about Australia?".
The full blacklist follows in hyperlink form. Note that entries 1.52 and 1.53 are somewhat unusual;
while confirmed to be part of the ACMA blacklist in censorship software it is possible that these are
contamination of some sort from another list. It is also possible that they are entries previously wrongly
excluded from the ACMA because they were on another (non-ACMA) list. Regardless, the complete
list is the one that is being used in by the censorship software maker, when placed into "adult -
unfiltered" (ACMA) mode.
Context
Australia
Government (bureaucracy)
Australian Communications and Media Authority
File size in bytes
62587
File type information
ASCII English text, with CRLF line terminators
Cryptographic identity
SHA256 8fcf3d7d799c3d55e5c49ed698838df3a58ca758f48c884dea9bbfaea9e5f3f2
Contents
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