From what I understand, someone posted a "forbidden" link to an anti-abortion website on Whirlpool and they got in trouble with the ACMA, because the site was on their child-porn blacklist.
Regardless of the content of that link, I think this incident is deeply troubling. It would be illegal to publish about false-positives on their blacklist. Anyone with content placed on the list unjustly will have not recourse whatsoever.
http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,25181408-15306,00.html
Freedom is a very fragile thing and the lessons of the past have already been forgotten.
I saw this come up last week and out of curiosity was able to find a copy of the post on another web page using a google search. The site that I found it on picked up on the issue back in January 09.
The issue over the list will soon have come to a head in Parliament and hopefully the won't be passed.
More info in this new article in The Age
The fact that there is a secret list out there will make people want to seek it out. They may then expose themselves to stuff that they probably would never have sought in the first place - particularly school kids.
It's been said before, but any supervision of children using the internet should be done by parents - it's not the governments responsibility.
(Tin foil hat on) The govt has a secret agenda to use the list to ban anything that they are not happy about. (tin foil hat off)
Oh this is grand. It appears there was a lot more than child-abuse on Stephen Conroy's internet black-list:
"Multiple legitimate businesses and Web sites have been banned including two bus companies, online poker sites, multiple Wikipedia entries, Google and Yahoo group pages, a dental surgery and a tour operator."
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/03/19/2321259
Good thing this leaked. I hope it gets a little media attention for a change.
Rumour has it on the twittersphere that the leaked list is fake. Spin and counter spin.
Whether you think censorship is a good thing or not (I don't), it's bloody appalling that they can fine someone for linking to a site on a list that they won't publish. Open and Transparent government. Wasn't that the catch-cry of a recent general election? My arse.
When Steven Conroy says the list is fake and then threatens to investigate anyone who publishes it, then I think it's not a very credible statement by him.
Don't get me wrong, because I abhor child abuse.
There should be no need for censorship in a free society. Censorship makes it impossible to trust information. This a fatal mistake to make in an information economy.
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