Barrelist

Barrelist is a term used in information governance to describe a dynamic, curated list of barred or restricted items maintained by an organization to enforce access controls, compliance, and moderation. The concept is a portmanteau of bar and list and is used in various contexts including security, content moderation, and product governance. A barrelist typically includes entries such as user accounts, IP addresses, domains, content identifiers, or product SKUs that are blocked from access, distribution, or use.

Each entry generally contains: an identifier, type, reason for barring, source or authority, dates of effect, expiry or renewal policy, and an audit trail. Management commonly involves automated detection, manual review, and integration with access control systems, security information and event management, or moderation pipelines. Workflows often include periodic reviews and triggers for re-evaluation.

Common use cases include blocking compromised or malicious accounts, preventing access from suspicious IPs, restricting illegal or unsafe content, or enforcing export controls on products. In practice, barrelists serve a similar function to blocklists or deny lists, but the term emphasizes the governance or compliance rationale behind the restriction rather than purely technical blocking.

Barrelist usage is not standardized and may vary by organization. The term appears mainly in internal policy documents, security blogs, and some product governance discussions. See also blocklist, denylist, allowlist, safelist, watchlist.