Australia Considers Censoring the Web

Australia could soon find itself the first Western democracy alongside Iran and China if it goes ahead with plans to censor the Internet. The country is mulling a plan—first proposed in May 2008 by Minister for Broadband, Communications, and the Digital Economy Stephen Conroy—that would black out 10,000 websites that the Australian Communications and Media Authority deems too offensive. No one knows what those 10,000 websites are, though a 2,395-site blacklist that WikiLeaks obtained in March 2009 included the websites of a dentist and pet-care facility in Queensland. A June 5 poll on the website of the Sydney Morning Herald found 99 percent of 88,645 respondents opposed the plan, but Conroy said it “will be going ahead.”