Australia's web blacklist leaked

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Legitimate business sites, Wikipedia pages banned

By Darren Pauli | Sydney | Friday, 20 March, 2009

The secretive internet filter blacklist held by the communications watchdog ACMA has been leaked, revealing the government has understated the amount of banned web pages by more than 1000.

Multiple legitimate businesses and websites have also been banned including two bus companies, online poker sites, multiple Wikipedia entries, Google and Yahoo group pages, a dental surgery and a tour operator.

Betfair CEO Andrew Twaits was furious the government has potentially annexed tens of millions of dollars in revenue after its Betfair.com gambling site was blacklisted.

The blacklists were reportedly leaked by a web filter operator to Wikileaks which has published the full list of banned URLs.

Outraged privacy advocates say the government has effectively lied about the amount of URLs included in the blacklists, totalling more than 2300, and the type of content which it would ban.

Electronic Frontiers Association (EFA) spokesman Geordie Guy said the list, dated August last year, would now be far more extensive in both the amount of URLs banned and the type of content included.

"The list is quite a bit bigger than what we have been led to believe; we were told it contained about 1600 pages in its current incarnation, and ACMA reports have claimed as low as 1300," Guy said.

"Because this is a secret that has been leaked, everyone will be after it."

"Every Australian will want to know what they were considered so irresponsible to not leave alone."

Guys said the leakage is proof that the list will be continually leaked if the internet content filters are enforced, which he said will completely undermine its effectiveness.

Users republishing the banned Web sites will effectively break the law and risk an A$11,000 fine from the watchdog.

Betfair's Twaits was unaware the TAB rival had been blacklisted when contacted by Computerworld, and said the watchdog had not contacted the company.

"We didn't know [about the ban]. We've been licensed to operate in Australia for three years and have never received a complaint or any allegation that Betfair locally or globally is not permitted to be used by Australians

"The global Betfair site is used by Australians every day."

Under the Interactive Gambling Act, it is illegal for overseas companies to offer gambling services to Australians and Betfair blocks local customers from accessing its UK poker and casino products.

He said Betfair is probably the only company in the world that blocks its customers from accessing the overseas gambling services.

This law is not applicable to the Betfair.com site.

"I need to find out what the implications are and how we got on the list," Twaits said.

"I'm amazed that this has happened."