What Is a Blacklist?

A blacklist is a list of people, organizations, or countries excluded because they are alleged to have engaged in unacceptable behavior. Originating as early as the 1610s, it has long served as a retaliatory tool. Today, blacklists appear in government sanctions, global business, and cybersecurity, affecting access to jobs, markets, and funding.

Historical examples include union supporters and alleged communists, while modern lists target companies and nations accused of misconduct, often resulting in serious financial and economic consequences.

Key Takeaways

Blacklists target entities seen as disruptive, imposing a financial burden on those included.

Historically, blacklists aimed to suppress union organizers and alleged communists.

Modern blacklists, often government-managed, focus on entities involved in illegal activities.

IP address blacklists block problematic internet addresses to enhance network security.

A gray list indicates less severity than a blacklist, offering a chance for improvement.

Blacklisting has a long history, and its roots have been traced to as early as the 1610s. People named on a blacklist were deemed suspicious in some way and were avoided. By the late 19th century, the names of workers known to be involved in union organizing were circulated on a blacklist to potential employers. The purpose was not only to punish unionists but to silence them.

In modern times, a blacklist is often used by governments to make economic sanctions effective by publicly listing people, organizations, and nations to avoid.

Any type of organization may also compile a blacklist, from a political or religious group to a business or professional association. It might be made public to increase the pressure on those listed or be circulated confidentially to those who might act upon the information, cutting ties to the blacklisted people or businesses.

A common misconception revolves around the purported existence of a credit blacklist to deny loans to consumers with poor or spotty credit histories. But there is no such list. Every person who ever obtained credit has a credit score on file with up to three major credit reporting agencies. That score falls within a range from very poor to exceptional at repaying debt in the past.

The score determines whether a consumer's application for new credit is approved and what interest rate is applied to the loan. At worst, a person with a very poor credit rating must undergo some credit repair work to obtain new credit at a reasonable rate.

The U.S. government maintains several lists that could reasonably be called blacklists. They publicly identify individuals or entities restricted or banned from conducting business in the U.S. or with U.S. entities. For instance:

In the days before electronic databases, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers consulted a printed Black List of Persons Engaged in Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs. This handbook contained photographs and fingerprints of known criminals to keep an eye out for at the borders.

The IP address blacklist is a network security tool used to block access to or from internet addresses that are deemed problematic. An IP address can wind up on a blacklist because it has hosted unacceptable content, such as pornography, or because it engages in cyber attacks, contains code that might be harmful, or a virus that might spread.

Addresses are also blacklisted to block email deliveries from addresses and domains known to be sources of spam, fraud, or cybercrime. IP address blacklisting is also known as IP blocklisting.

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) publishes both a blacklist and a gray list of countries that don't act effectively to curtail money laundering and the financing of terrorism.

Nations on the blacklist are likely to find it difficult to do business with the outside world on any terms. They are likely to face economic sanctions from the 37 active member nations of the OECD, and their businesses are unlikely to be well received by financial institutions in the member nations. Iran, North Korea, and Myanmar are the only three nations named on the blacklist as of 2024.

The term grey list generally indicates a less serious situation for those named on it than a blacklist. The FATF grey list is much longer than the blacklist. It is formally called the Jurisdictions Under Increased Monitoring List. The nations on the list are deemed deficient in preventing money laundering or terrorism financing but have committed to improvement under timetables agreed upon with the FATF. In 2024, the grey list contained the names of 21 countries from all regions of the world, including two members of the European Union.

Whether formal or informal, the blacklist has been used as a weapon against people for a variety of reasons, political and practical. The following are some of the most famous examples of blacklists used across the globe.

It is illegal for a company to blacklist or refuse to hire an applicant based on the knowledge or suspicion that they have an affiliation or sympathize with unionization. That law did not exist in the early days of unionization when participants in faced retaliation by companies, including blacklisting.

As union membership declined in the past several decades, so did complaints of job candidates blacklisted for their ties to unions. In fact, a study by Work In Progress found that union-affiliated applicants and individuals with no union affiliation were equally likely to get called back for an interview for an entry-level front-line job in Chicago.

Warning

It is a violation of federal unfair labor practices law for a union to maintain a blacklist of workers who refuse to join a union.

In the 1930s, membership in the Communist Party was quite fashionable in some circles. By the late 1940s and well into the 1950s, it was considered grossly un-American.

With the Cold War in full swing, a Congressional committee called the House Un-American Activities Committee began investigating the political beliefs of several prominent Americans, including those in the entertainment industry. Accusations of subversion and even treason swirled. People who refused to cooperate by naming names were prosecuted and even jailed.

The crusade was also taken up in the Senate, most notoriously by Senator Joseph McCarthy and the committee he chaired. The focus of the committee was on the alleged infiltration of the U.S. government and military by communists and spies for the Soviet Union. The public hearings, known as the Army-McCarthy hearings, riveted the public.

The Senate eventually censured McCarthy for making unfounded public accusations against hundreds of people. By that time, official or unofficial blacklisting had damaged the careers of many of McCarthy's victims.

Fast Fact

Dalton Trumbo and Ring Lardner, Jr. were among the writers who were blacklisted after refusing to answer questions from the House Un-American Activities Committee.

The House Un-American Activities Committee was particularly focused on rooting out supposed communist sympathizers in the entertainment industry, which then as now was seen as a hotbed of the American political left.

Many of the biggest names in Hollywood were dragged to Washington, where they were grilled on their own political beliefs and those of their friends and associates. Among those who refused to cooperate were those known as the Hollywood 10. These screenwriters and directors went to jail for refusing to answer the committee's questions.

The Hollywood 10 were officially blacklisted and banned from employment at the Hollywood studios. The blacklist was not officially lifted until the 1960s, years after the hysteria had died down. Some of the Hollywood 10 continued to work, using pseudonyms.

Although most countries have blacklists of organizations and suppliers who are not to be trusted, the threat of blacklisting is usually effective. This is particularly true during international trade squabbles.

For example, between December 2017 and November 2021, the U.S. government took a number of actions against China-based Huawei to blacklist the company in various contexts. Government agencies are barred from buying and using Huawei equipment. Huawei is blacklisted from new equipment licenses in the United States, and the government will reimburse U.S. firms for replacing Huawei equipment they already have. Additionally, efforts were made to blacklist Huawei from international semiconductor chip sales.

China responded by threatening to blacklist all the companies of foreign countries that enacted a Huawei ban. Despite the threats, these types of disputes are often resolved without having entire nations put on blacklists.

Why Is It Called a Blacklist?

People viewed as troublesome or non-conforming were placed on blacklists, official or unofficial, for centuries and avoided. In practice, blacklisting is an economic punishment meant to exclude the people named from enjoying the benefit of doing business in the community.

What Happens When a Person Is Blacklisted?

Blacklisting is intended to deprive a person of the ability to make a living. Professional ties are cut, and the person's reputation and status in the community are damaged. However, blacklists may be discredited. The Hollywood 10, blacklisted for refusing to name names to the House Un-American Activities Committee, were eventually lionized for their stance.

How Can I Check If I Have Been Blacklisted?

Reports of blacklists, official or unofficial, circulate in most professions. Most are probably untrue. Writing for a resume site, a recruiter maintained that there is no blacklist in her field and no need for one. You're more likely to be sunk by a bad interview or an unfavorable reference than by a blacklist.

Some people fear a less official form of blacklisting if they have left a previous job under a cloud or made enemies along the way. One way to find out if they're right is for them to run a background check on themselves to see if anything negative pops up. Many web-based services are available to do the job.

A blacklists is a list used by individuals, corporations, or governments to exclude those alleged to engage in unethical or unacceptable behavior. Historically applied to union supporters and suspected communists, including during the Hollywood era, blacklists today appear in government sanctions and cybersecurity IP blocking.

Being blacklisted can bring financial hardship, reputational harm, and limits on business. Although removal is difficult, entities can sometimes be cleared by addressing the behavior or policies that led to their inclusion.