Secret internet filter blacklist posted on web

Wikileaks, an online repository for top-secret documents collected by whistleblowers, has published what it claims is a list of sites classified 'dangerous' by the Government.

All 2,395 sites are said to be in the sights of the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), ahead of the introduction of a mandatory internet filter.

But alongside the expected child pornography, fetish and gambling sites, the list also includes the webpages of a boarding kennel and a dentist, both based in Queensland.

"Wikileaks is used to exposing secret government censorship in developing countries, [but] we now find Australia acting like a democratic backwater," the group said on its site.

Leak 'grossly irresponsible'

"Apparently without irony, ACMA threatens fines of up to $11,000 a day for linking to sites on its secret, unreviewable, censorship blacklist - a list the government hopes to expand into a giant national censorship machine."
 
Wikileaks itself is also included on the censorship list.

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has condemned the apparent leaking of the list as "grossly irresponsible", and said it was under investigation.

He told the Sydney Morning Herald that anyone involved in the list's publication was at risk of criminal prosecution.

"The ACMA blacklist includes URLs relating to child sexual abuse, rape, incest, bestiality, sexual violence and detailed instruction in crime," he said.

"No one interested in cyber safety would condone the leaking of this list."