(Image uploaded by Wild to OCAU)

So it appears that the ACMA blacklist has been leaked (scoop by Asher Moses and Wikileaks). This is the secret list of sites that have been deemed to be prohibited by the communications regulator, and are slated to be blocked by Senator Conroy's proposed filter. Senator Conroy has now said that this leaked list is not the ACMA blacklist. Conroy did confirm that the list shared some URLs with the ACMA list, but had many others that were not added by ACMA.

This suggests that the leaked list may be a combined filtering vendor's list, containing parts of the ACMA list and URLs added by the vendor or from other sources. Unfortunately, we have no way of knowing which URLs, if any, were added by ACMA and which were added by any third parties.

The list is apparently from late last year, and contains just over two thousand URLs (about double the size of the current list). On the list are some sites which look like they may possibly contain some child sexual abuse material. Unfortunately, there are also a very high number of innocuous sites – dentists, tuckshops, dog kennels, favourite collections of lolcats. Reports are coming out that these sites may have been hacked in the past and found their way on to the blacklist. This raises an immediate problem – what happens when the website owner fixes its security hole and removes prohibited content? How do you (a) find out you're on the blacklist; and then (b) get your site removed?

Then there's another category of sites on the list – sites that appear to have been wrongly categorised – legitimate adult sites, poker and betting sites, the Encyclopedia Dramatica, 4chan, and many more.

There is a real legitimacy problem if the Australian public are not allowed to know what is blocked, and there is no recourse for blocked sites to appeal decisions by ACMA.

What makes this much, much worse is that we face serious repercussions for simply wanting to examine the list and point out mistakes by ACMA or undesirable effects of the censorship regime. ACMA says that “Australians caught distributing the list or accessing child pornography sites on the list could face criminal charges and up to 10 years in prison.”

Last week, we saw ACMA threaten whirlpool's hosts with fines of up to $11,000/day if it did not remove links to a page that links to a another site on the current ACMA blacklist.

Today, Senator Conroy said that

ACMA is investigating this matter and is considering a range of possible actions it may take including referral to the Australian Federal Police. Any Australian involved in making this content publicly available would be at serious risk of criminal prosecution

This is extremely worrying from an accountability and legitimacy point of view. Australian have effectively been asked to take it on faith that the ACMA list is legitimate and only contains so-called 'illegal' sites, does not result in over-blocking, and is both accurate and up-to-date. Any citizen who wants to investigate those claims is faced with the threat of criminal prosecution.

This is not only bad policy, but it's bad democracy. Solving the problem caused by leaked lists by silencing critique is not best way forward.

Despite the best efforts of ourselves and others, reports are still coming in that the mandatory filtering plan has now been 'scuttled', and twitter (and I'm sure many other social media outlets) is still on fire with the celebratory news. Here's an update of some of the things that people have been doing to continue the opposition to Labor's mandatory filtering proposal:

• EFA has launched SiteBlocker.org, which shows a facetious look at what the mandatory filter may look like. See a demonstration here, or go to the siteblocker site to create your own customised blocked site.

• Tomorrow UNSW will host a second forum on mandatory filtering, which looks like it will be a great event. Keep your eyes open for live coverage and reports of the event. Update: live twitter stream available at #filteringforum

• I'll be speaking at a forum on filtering in Brisbane on 26 March. Details have not been released yet, but the organiser plans to run similar forums in March in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, and Adelaide. Stay tuned for details.

• The Digital Liberty Coalition is organising a March in March, a public protest against mandatory filtering in Canberra at 1pm on 21 March. If you can get there, I recommend you make the effort to turn up and make yourself heard.

• EFA is producing a set of fact sheets for politicians about the mandatory filtering proposal. This is something that we could use some help with. Being a volunteer organisation, we often struggle to find the time to do what needs to be done. So I've created a wiki to reach out for help from the public in our campaigns. If you think you can help with writing (or even fact and copy checking) some high quality fact sheets, please help us out.