AUSSIE INTERNET CENSORSHIP

29 February 2008

Without a public fuss, an Australian federal government agency is quietly blacklisting web pages


Australian IT reports that an Australian federal government agency has built a blacklist of illegal online gambling sites that has caught some industry players off guard.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority has produced a blacklist of around 800 hundred web pages - not websites - deemed 'unsuitable for public consumption.'

ACMA sends the list to internet service providers and content filtering companies so they can update their list of banned URLs.

About three months ago service providers received a list from ACMA containing illegal gambling pages they should block.

"We asked ACMA what was going on and were told that these were illegal gambling websites that had been identified by the federal Government as inappropriate," an industry source said. "We had never received two lists before, so that caused some confusion."

ACMA clarified that it is normal practice to distribute a single list that included prohibited online gambling pages. However, the anomaly was due to a high number of complaints about illegal online gambling sites in October 2007 that were resolved months later.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) was formed on 1 July 2005 by the merging of the Australian Communications Authority (ACA) and Australian Broadcasting Authority (ABA). ACMA is responsible for the regulation of broadcasting, radiocommunications, telecommunications and online content.

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