March 26, 2009 (CAP Newswire) — Wired.com is reporting that the Australian online censorship board's website was hacked today, most likely as a result of anger over the recent publication of a series of blacklists that outed almost 2,400 websites as candidates for permanent blocking by the Aussie government.
The hackers apparently took down the website and replaced it with a farcical message comparing the Australian government’s censorship plan to Chinese policies. "This site contains information about the boards that have the right to CONTROL YOUR FREEDOMZ," the message read in part.
The anger generated from the blacklists is stemming from the fact that there are allegedly many legitimate, legal websites — including those of respected online gaming website — listed among thousands of disreputable websites dedicated to criminal acts (such as bestiality and child pornography).
While there is no excuse for a criminal act such as this, it does point to a building sense of outrage against the Aussie government and its plan to enact widespread censorship of the Internet.
Read Wired.com's coverage here. More information on the Aussie censorship story can be found here.