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Is my site blocked in Australia?
Australian internet providers block sites on Federal Court orders that film studios and other rights holders obtain against piracy, and when the communications regulator ACMA asks them to cut off illegal gambling. Telstra and TPG have blocked court-listed sites in their DNS (the internet's address book, which turns a domain name into a server address), sending visitors to a notice page. Legitimate sites get caught by accident, through a block on a shared server address; any notice page your visitors see usually tells you who is behind the block.
Sources: iTnews, 15 December 2016 · iTnews, 11 November 2019 · OONI blocking fingerprints, checked 11 November 2026 · ABC News, 27 August 2014 · Telstra notice page, checked 11 November 2026
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We cannot test providers in Australia yet. Enter a page and pick a country: we open it through connections of the main providers there (home and mobile; mobile only in Norway) and tell you provider by provider whether it opens. Free, about a minute, a few checks per hour.
How do court-ordered piracy blocks work?
Since June 2015, section 115A of the Copyright Act has let rights holders ask the Federal Court to order providers to block a site outside Australia whose main purpose or, since December 2018, main effect is to infringe copyright or help others infringe it. The first orders came in December 2016. Telstra, Optus, TPG and M2 got 15 business days to block The Pirate Bay and four other sites by DNS, IP address (the numeric address of a server), URL (a single web address) or another method. Visitors had to see a notice page citing the court's finding.
Sources: Jones Day, January 2017 · Copyright Amendment (Online Infringement) Act 2018, WIPO Lex · iTnews, 15 December 2016
Further orders have followed; one, of 9 July 2025, ordered providers including Telstra, Optus, TPG, Vodafone, Vocus and Aussie Broadband to block 35 piracy platforms on 47 domain names, among them 123Movies and Soap2day, for three years. It also provides for adding new domain names or URLs if the operators try to get around the block.
Source: Piracy Monitor, 17 July 2025
What does ACMA block?
The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has asked providers to block illegal gambling sites since November 2019, under section 313 of the Telecommunications Act 1997. Its policy covers gambling services banned in Australia, services offered to Australians without an Australian licence, and websites that advertise either, so affiliate sites, paid to send players there, are blocked too. As of 24 September 2026, 1,822 illegal gambling and affiliate websites had been blocked; that day's round named five sites, among them Bet Ninja and WinShark.
Sources: iTnews, 11 November 2019 · The Straight, 24 September 2026
Other agencies use the same section. TEQSA, the higher education regulator, had 40 academic cheating websites blocked by August 2022 without going to court, and students who tried to open one landed on a TEQSA page.
Source: Times Higher Education, 5 August 2022
Can a block meant for someone else hit my site?
It has happened. In April 2013 ASIC, the corporate regulator, asked several providers to block the IP addresses of two fraudulent websites, and more than 1,000 other sites on one of those addresses were blocked with them, Melbourne Free University's among them. An earlier ASIC request had cut off 250,000 websites, nearly all without substantive content, ASIC said. Its internal review found that the staff involved did not know one IP address could host many websites.
Sources: ABC News, 27 August 2014 · iTnews, 27 August 2014
Guidelines the government published in 2017 recommend that agencies ask for a domain name or URL to be blocked rather than an IP address, and that the notice page name the agency and explain how an affected party can complain or seek a review.
Source: Clayton Utz, 3 September 2017
Court orders, including the one of July 2025, have allowed IP blocking, the method behind ASIC's 2013 mistake. On networks such as Cloudflare's, one blocked address can take thousands of unrelated sites down. Cases from Spain, Italy and Austria: Collateral blocking in Europe.
Sources: Piracy Monitor, 17 July 2025 · OONI, 30 June 2026
Whole platforms can be blocked for what their users post. In March 2019 Telstra blocked 4chan, 8chan, Voat, Zerohedge and LiveLeak for still hosting video of the Christchurch attack, and the same sites failed to load on Optus and Vodafone. Since January 2022 the eSafety Commissioner, the online safety regulator, can order such blocks when material that promotes, incites, instructs in or depicts what the law calls abhorrent violent conduct is likely to cause significant harm to the Australian community. Orders can cover domain names, URLs or IP addresses for up to three months at a time.
Sources: SBS News, 19 March 2019 · Online Safety Act 2021, compilation of 12 September 2026
Why would Telstra show a notice page instead of my site?
Telstra blocks malicious sites with DNS filtering on its own network, which it announced as Cleaner Pipes in May 2020 after a 12-month trial. Telstra's notice page for malicious sites, titled "This website has been blocked", tells visitors the site "may contain malicious content and could be harmful to your devices".
Sources: Telstra, 6 May 2020 · Telstra, Cleaner Pipes, checked 11 November 2026 · Telstra notice page, checked 11 November 2026
If your site is there by mistake, the page's "report this website as safe" link opens Telstra's misuse report form. Choose "Request blocked website or domain removal", give the exact domain and say you own the site. Telstra says it may not respond to every submission, and replies only by email.
Source: Telstra, report misuse of service, checked 11 November 2026
How do I tell which block my visitors hit?
Ask an affected visitor what they see. A page saying the Federal Court found the site infringes copyright means a court order. A government notice page should name the agency and explain how to seek a review. Telstra's "This website has been blocked" page means its security filter.
Sources: Jones Day, January 2017 · Clayton Utz, 3 September 2017 · Telstra notice page, checked 11 November 2026
OONI Explorer, an open archive of tests run with the OONI Probe app, lets you filter for Australia, a provider's network and your domain. It confirms a block only when it recognises a notice page or a DNS answer linked to censorship, such as the answers Telstra and TPG gave for thepiratebay.org in February 2022. Other signs of interference are marked as anomalies, which can be false alarms.
Sources: OONI, OONI Explorer guide, checked 11 November 2026 · OONI blocking fingerprints, checked 11 November 2026
We do not measure Australia yet; demand decides the order in which we add countries. A check there would have to cover the DNS and IP blocks at Telstra, Optus, TPG and the other providers named in court orders, and Telstra's own filter for malicious sites. As of 11 November 2026, linkspect is open in early access in Germany, Poland and Norway.
Facts checked on 11 November 2026.