Senator Stephen Conroy has denied the blacklist published on Wikileaks is the ACMA blacklist, but admits URLs on it are also on his list. Which, he obviously doesn’t say.
ZDNet reports Conroy as saying:
“I am aware of reports that a list of URLs has been placed on a website. This is not the ACMA blacklist,” Conroy said in a statement.
“The published list purports to be current at 6 August 2008 and apparently contains approximately 2,400 URLs whereas the ACMA blacklist for the same date contained 1,061 URLs,” he said
He admitted the list contained some common URLS, but said that other URLs on the list had never been the subject of a complaint or ACMA investigation.
“ACMA is investigating this matter and is considering a range of possible actions it may take including referral to the Australian Federal Police. Any Australian involved in making this content publicly available would be at serious risk of criminal prosecution,” Conroy said.
It is likely the leaked list includes extra URLs added by a filter vendor. With that said, it was already known that half of the sites included on the ACMA blacklist are legal.
Update: A press release issued by Senator Conroy also states:
“The Government has indicated an interest in using ISP–level filtering technology to block URLs that display content that is Refused Classification under the Broadcasting Services Act 1992, including child sexual abuse imagery, bestiality, sexual violence, detailed instruction in crime, violence or drug use and/or material that advocates the doing of a terrorist act.”
“A final decision on the extent of the content filtering proposal will be determined after the conclusion of technical feasibility trials.”
As noted on this blog countless times, blocking RC content means blocking legal content.
Update 2: ACMA has published their response here.
