diff --git a/index.php b/index.php
index 771e3379..0bc63625 100644
--- a/index.php
+++ b/index.php
@@ -29,27 +29,8 @@ define('USER_AGENT',
 
 ini_set('user_agent', USER_AGENT);
 
-// default whitelist
-$whitelist_default = array(
-	'BandcampBridge',
-	'CryptomeBridge',
-	'DansTonChatBridge',
-	'DuckDuckGoBridge',
-	'FacebookBridge',
-	'FlickrBridge',
-	'GoogleSearchBridge',
-	'IdenticaBridge',
-	'InstagramBridge',
-	'OpenClassroomsBridge',
-	'PinterestBridge',
-	'ScmbBridge',
-	'TwitterBridge',
-	'WikipediaBridge',
-	'YoutubeBridge');
-
 try {
 
-	Bridge::setWhitelist($whitelist_default);
 	$actionFac = new \ActionFactory();
 	$actionFac->setWorkingDir(PATH_LIB_ACTIONS);
 
diff --git a/lib/Bridge.php b/lib/Bridge.php
index 9e5750a7..dc42e79b 100644
--- a/lib/Bridge.php
+++ b/lib/Bridge.php
@@ -192,7 +192,8 @@ class Bridge {
 	/**
 	 * Returns the whitelist.
 	 *
-	 * On first call this function reads the whitelist from {@see WHITELIST}.
+	 * On first call this function reads the whitelist from {@see WHITELIST} if
+	 * the file exists, {@see WHITELIST_DEFAULT} otherwise.
 	 * * Each line in the file specifies one bridge on the whitelist.
 	 * * An empty file disables all bridges.
 	 * * If the file only only contains `*`, all bridges are whitelisted.
@@ -210,19 +211,21 @@ class Bridge {
 
 		if($firstCall) {
 
-			// Create initial whitelist or load from disk
-			if (!file_exists(WHITELIST) && !empty(self::$whitelist)) {
-				file_put_contents(WHITELIST, implode("\n", self::$whitelist));
-			} elseif(file_exists(WHITELIST)) {
-
+			if(file_exists(WHITELIST)) {
 				$contents = trim(file_get_contents(WHITELIST));
+			} elseif(file_exists(WHITELIST_DEFAULT)) {
+				$contents = trim(file_get_contents(WHITELIST_DEFAULT));
+			} else {
+				$contents = '';
+			}
 
-				if($contents === '*') { // Whitelist all bridges
-					self::$whitelist = self::getBridgeNames();
-				} else {
-					self::$whitelist = array_map('self::sanitizeBridgeName', explode("\n", $contents));
+			if($contents === '*') { // Whitelist all bridges
+				self::$whitelist = self::getBridgeNames();
+			} else {
+				//self::$whitelist = array_map('self::sanitizeBridgeName', explode("\n", $contents));
+				foreach(explode("\n", $contents) as $bridgeName) {
+					self::$whitelist[] = self::sanitizeBridgeName($bridgeName);
 				}
-
 			}
 
 		}
diff --git a/lib/Configuration.php b/lib/Configuration.php
index be9315c8..cf2fd7c8 100644
--- a/lib/Configuration.php
+++ b/lib/Configuration.php
@@ -106,10 +106,6 @@ final class Configuration {
 		if(!is_writable(PATH_CACHE))
 			die('RSS-Bridge does not have write permissions for ' . PATH_CACHE . '!');
 
-		// Check whitelist file permissions
-		if(!file_exists(WHITELIST) && !is_writable(dirname(WHITELIST)))
-			die('RSS-Bridge does not have write permissions for ' . WHITELIST . '!');
-
 	}
 
 	/**
diff --git a/lib/rssbridge.php b/lib/rssbridge.php
index 5a523588..168c91ca 100644
--- a/lib/rssbridge.php
+++ b/lib/rssbridge.php
@@ -38,6 +38,9 @@ define('PATH_CACHE', __DIR__ . '/../cache/');
 /** Path to the whitelist file */
 define('WHITELIST', __DIR__ . '/../whitelist.txt');
 
+/** Path to the default whitelist file */
+define('WHITELIST_DEFAULT', __DIR__ . '/../whitelist.default.txt');
+
 /** URL to the RSS-Bridge repository */
 define('REPOSITORY', 'https://github.com/RSS-Bridge/rss-bridge/');
 
diff --git a/whitelist.default.txt b/whitelist.default.txt
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..6530c324
--- /dev/null
+++ b/whitelist.default.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+Bandcamp
+Cryptome
+DansTonChat
+DuckDuckGo
+Facebook
+Flickr
+GoogleSearch
+Identica
+Instagram
+OpenClassrooms
+Pinterest
+Scmb
+Twitter
+Wikipedia
+Youtube