Australia to Block 10,000 Websites - Updated

Promised before Christmas, Australian authorities will launch a six-week pilot project to censor the Internet.

The government has already identified 1300 websites that it wants to black list as part of the clean feeds scheme. Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said the sites mostly contained child pornography and other unwatned content, including images and videos.

"While the ACMA blacklist is currently around 1300 URLs, the pilot will test against this list - as well as filtering for a range of URLs to around 10,000 - so that the impacts on network performance of a larger blacklist can be examined," se said. [sic all]

It's believed that websites criticizing the censorship scheme will be blocked for unwanted content.


[Update 11/15/08]

Opposition to the Internet censorship scheme has made headlines. The head of one of Australia's largest ISPs has called Communications Minister Stephen Conroy the worst in the past 15 years.

Furthermore, check out this statement:

Internet providers and the Government's own lab tests have found that presently available filters are not capable of adequately distinguishing between legal and illegal content and can degrade internet speeds by up to 86 per cent.

Well, isn't that typical of a government scheme? The only thing it's guaranteed to do is slow everything down.

However, some clarification has been provided regarding what will be censored. Presently, it appears that mandatory filters will, as a minimum, block websites containing child pornography, hard-core pornography and online gambling.

When queried about the meaning of "unwanted content," Minister Conroy said he didn't have time to answer that question but would have time at some future meeting.

Companion post at The Jawa Report.