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AT&T Blocks 4chan

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Sometime during the afternoon of July 27th 2009, an internet drama/mystery was brewing. Users of AT&T’s internet service were finding out that they could no longer access two of 4chan’s many image boards. These two boards, /r9k/ and the infamous /b/, for all intents and purposes ceased to exist as far as AT&T broadband users were concerned. Was it yet another ddos attack? Was moot playing an internet shenanigan on his users? After a bit of internet sleuthing, Anon tracked down the seemingly real culprit and found out that AT&T had blocked the img.4chan.org server. Instantly, a torch and pitchfork carrying mob formed…you could literally hear the engines rumble to life deep within the internet hate machine’s bowels. However, as the dust settled after a night or rabble-rousing, things were not as they would seem, and an old enemy's evil plans were laid bare.

AT&T Blocks 4chan
WTF? Security measures at AT&T block some users from accessing 4chan. Internet meltdown nearly occurs.
Timeline July 26th until (at least) July 28th 2009
Location Initial block reported in California. Subsequent block information drifts in over a space of several hours.
Key people moot, 4chan CEO and Randall Stephenson, AT&T CEO
Weapon of Lulz Anontalk trolls /b/ into almost attempting to take on AT&T.
Is this win? y/n It was almost win in the respect that the battle would have been glorious.
Website 4chan and several linked sites located below.
AT&T redirects here. For the attempted ownage of Weev by AT&T, see Goatse Security.
   
“ 		 
The truce of the Internets will be shattered. There'll be arrests, there'll be deaths. Nothing can stop this.
  		„
  		 

—Oh just how wrong you are!

Moot has published a detailed article on status.4chan.org regarding this matter. So, case closed, defenders of freedom and the internets, you have done your job in an admirable fashion. Now you can go back to fapping.

Initial Reactions

 
pick which one is currently the 4chan user...
 
 
 
 

Calls for violence, calls for blood, calls for pizza delivery and male prostitutes rang out. The normal rage that occurs when Anon’s hackles are raised was nothing new. Anon was simply going to deal with this problem the way it normally does; attack without restraint and without mercy for as long as need be until Anon brutally took what it wanted: the utter destruction and humiliation of AT&T. Several threads were made on the AT&T customer’s behalf on the /b/ board, people wanted to organize this fight and they wanted to get started as soon as possible for the foe was a tier 1 internet service provider, and an enemy that should not be taken lightly.

Organized Discussion Sites

 
 
 
srs biznez

Soon after /b/ received enough information concerning the block, though not enough concerning the actual nature of their foe, they organized and built several web pages where they could coordinate attacks against their perceived foes. The main board seems to be located here, however there are several other sites where /b/tards who were blocked could go and find information:

IRC

Anon also created several IRC channels to coordinate in real time via chat:

Geography

Cities that experienced a full or partial blocking of 4chan:

  • Anderson, CA
  • Anderson, IN
  • Berkeley, CA
  • Los Angeles and Surrounding Areas, CA
  • Red Bluff, CA
  • San Francisco, CA
  • Sacramento, CA
  • SF Bay Area, CA
  • Several cities in CT
  • Chicago, IL
  • Kendallville, IN (Confirmed, down as of 4:32 EDT)
  • Bloomington, IN
  • Indianapolis, IN (DOWN AGAIN, 4chan traffic going through Cogent)
  • Detroit, MI /b/ is back
  • Grand Rapids, MI (Confirmed)
  • Kansas City, MO (Doesn't really matter, because no one in Kansas City can read)
  • St. Louis, MO
  • All former Ohio Bell areas (Cleveland, Dayton, Akron, Toledo)
  • Oklahoma City, OK
  • Saint Paul / Minneapolis, MN (Restored)
  • Tulsa and Metro area, OK
  • Knoxville, TN (Wireless + DSL, Restored) (Confirmed)
  • Tyler, TX
  • Houston, TX
  • Dallas, TX
  • Austin, TX
  • San Antonio, TX
  • Milwaukee and Racine, WI (Confirmed)
  • Sheboygan, WI

AT&T wireless services, including laptop cards and iPhones, are not affected as of 7-26-2009 5:35PM PDT.

History Of The Block

A lot has happened; here's a timeline to make sense of it all

  • July 25-26 - The Block starts
  • Morning of July 26 - Shit storm begins on Reddit, Digg, and this wiki page all the way through the day
  • 2:00AM EST, July 27 - AT&T UNBLOCKS! Victory?
  • 3:00AM EST, July 27 - DDoS of 4chan starts, probably because of all the attention this incident drew. AT&T is NOT involved with this.
  • 4:00AM EST, July 27 - moot writes a post on /status/ that was taken down quickly: Cogent is blocking ALL of 4chan
  • 12:00PM EST, July 27 - AT&T redirects 4chan traffic to Cogent, once again, is blocked. At least in the Indianapolis reigon.
  • unknown time, July 27 - Comcast also starts blocking 4chan.

Details Of The Block

 
At&t now headed to iPhones
 
People without lives are devastated and need to calm the fuck down
 
Rumor that AT&T has stopped selling iPhones, expect some stock to plunge tommorow morning if it sells.

In a nutshell, moot, tired of the constant ddos attacks from Anontalk, used a filter to block packets. This filter caused AT&T to think that they were under some sort of attack themselves which they quickly dealt with by blocking what they thought was the offending site: 4chan. Specifically the img.4chan.org server where /b/ is kept. Since AT&T did not let anybody know of the block, no information was available. AT&T's caller help services were of no use due to the fact that they were just as uninformed as anybody regarding the situation. Upper level support was made aware and the situation quickly cooled off when the full details were exposed by moot and AT&T simultaneously on their respective sites.

   
“ 		 
"DDOS attacks are a frequent occurrence, however, and AT&T has not previously blocked access to sites in response. Besides, such an attack occupies a tiny fraction of the total bandwidth through the AT&T network and is unlikely to affect it very much. As a result, an inevitable suspicion arises that it was img.4chan.org’s content that made the corporation act in this case."
  		„
  		 

— National Coalition Against Censorship

   
“ 		 
-Most AT&T DSL (largest ISP in the US, 15.5% of US Internet users) customers ARE currently not able to access img.4chan.org (/b/ & /r9k/)

-There are a few AT&T DSL users that are NOT affected. Florida, and Ohio are where we've gotten those reports. (Parts of Georgia are still alright as well.) AT&T is a megacorp made from the smaller pieces it was broken down into in the 80s- different equipment and such.

-AT&T Mobility (Cell Phones) ARE NOT AFFECTED (yet).

-It IS NOT a DNS issue. Affected people have tried OpenDNS with no success.

-It IS very visible on a traceroute. It drops within the AT&T network.

-It DOES NOT affect AT&Ts Tier 1 backbone (major bandwidth backbone in US).

-It DOES NOT affect other servers on 4chan.

-People HAVE called customer service (allegedly) and confirmed a block, but agents have denied further info.
 

„
  		 

— 148757269

Here is a conversation about the block from Awesome "Budster" Johnson, giving new details. 

System:  Welcome Awesome Johnson.
System:  Connecting to server. Please wait...
System:  Connection with server established.
You:  Technical Support Topic: DSL High Speed Internet
System:  Melanie has joined this session!
System:  Connected with Melanie
Melanie:  Thank you for contacting AT&T Internet Services.How may I help you?
You:  Hello, I was planning on switching my Internet service to AT&T, but had some questions based on recent news.
Melanie:  All right.
You:  Is it possible that some of the websites I visit may be blocked?
Melanie:  No not all.
Melanie:  at*
You:  Ok, this article was the one that had me worried.
You:  http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/07/27/054230
Melanie:  Please don't worry.
Melanie:  If you want further information about our services check http://att.com
You:  Well, your response still has me a bit troubled. Has AT&T actually blocked the sites listed there?
Melanie:  Which website are you talking about?
You:  img.4chan.org
Melanie:  Let me provide you some information.
Melanie:  The web site http://img.4chan.org. has been blackholed – the IP tech support contact was informed that the site 
would be blocked before it was blocked.
Melanie:  The Technical contact for the IP owner was sent an e-mail. From the network security team.
Melanie:  I have included the contact that the customer would need to contact.
Melanie:  This is out of our support area and it is up to the site owner to get it resolved.
Melanie:  ip route 207.126.64.181 255.255.255.255 192.0.2.1 tag 666 = Blackholed ip route 207.126.64.182 255.255.255.255 
192.0.2.1 tag 666 = Blackholed
Melanie:  Here is the contact info the customer should contact. Technical Contact : Administrator, Chan 
[email protected] ATTN: 4CHAN.ORG c/o Network Solutions P.O. Box 447 Herndon, 
VA20172-0447 Phone: 570-708-8780
You:  Thank you very much for your time.
Melanie:  Is there anything else that I may assist you with today?
You:  No, that should do it. Goodbye.

Here is a conversation about the block from iK. They are blaming bitchy customers and viruses. 

You: But why was it done in the first place?
Mellisa: It has viruses.
You: Was the company receiving complaints or did it harm the company somehow?
Mellisa: We are receiving complaints.
You: From the customers though, right?
Mellisa: Yes
Mellisa: Is there anything else I can assist you today?

What Traceroute Reveals

 
VIRUSES ARE IN TEH MY COMPUTERZ
 
worked (partially) here
 
tracert that stops dead at AT&T

If you traceroute to 4chan and it keeps "***" forever, you're fucked. Follow the steps mentioned later in this wiki to try to remedy it. Pull open a terminal (on whatever OS you use) and type:

traceroute img.4chan.org (tracert in CMD) 

flouride:$ traceroute img.4chan.org
traceroute: Warning: img.4chan.org has multiple addresses; using 207.126.64.181
traceroute to img.4chan.org (207.126.64.181), 64 hops max, 40 byte packets
1 192.168.1.254 (192.168.1.254) 1.094 ms 0.540 ms 0.646 ms
2 ##-##-##-#.lightspeed.rcsntx.sbcglobal.net (##.##.##.#) 22.565 ms 22.093 ms 22.719 ms
3 70.143.229.18 (70.143.229.18) 27.973 ms 23.127 ms 24.098 ms
4 * * *
5 * * *
6 * * *
7 * * *

Their edge routers appear to have an ACL that sends anything requesting stuff from img.4chan.org's entire IP block to null0, the routers discard interface.

A normal traceroute should be a little slow at a few points but eventually get there within a minute. Alternativly, if you use lunix you can use traceroute-nanog to do some better tests.

If you are unlucky enough to be using Windows you can open a command prompt and type in "tracert."

Rise Of The /b/tards

 
Even before the attacks got off the ground, several Anons went on their own...to pwn.

Before anyone knew the full story, it was assumed that AT&T was at fault for the whole mess. Anon went to the extreme and began planning attacks on the ISP itself as well as many of it's upper echelon employees. While it was later found that the whole problem was caused by a filter that moot had placed upon his servers to protect 4chan from Anontalk, the bulk of the raid information is laid out here, in collapsing text for posterity.

Original Rage

HEY FAGGOTS AT&T RESTORED YOUR /B/ AND /R9GAY/ SO DON'T FUCKING GO THROUGH WITH THESE IRL RAIDS OR WHATEVER, READ THE STATEMENT BELOW, IF ANYONE TRIES TO CRASH STOCKS OR PULL SOME STUPID SHIT, IT'S JUST GOING TO MAKE SHIT GET WORSE.

What is a /b/tard without his /b/? A shell of his former self! On July 26, 2009, /b/tards connecting to the internets via AT&T began reporting blocked access to img.4chan.org (/b/ and /r9k/) in many areas of the country. Tinfoil hats were put on and a grave conspiracy was discovered.

AT&T confirms they are the ones blocking (read updates): http://www.centralgadget.com/att-blocking-access-to-portions-of-4chan-2336/

OpenDNS doesn't work because it's an IP ban and not a DNS resolve ban.

Beginning to suspect that this isn't just blocking, but also Bandwidth Raping. The /i/nsurgents will be pissed the FUCK off, and we need to get them to see this page, especially the gameplan, because they are better at doing things than /b/tards, they have experience.

http://insurgen.info/wiki/AT%26T - Insurgency wiki thread for the AT&T "raid"

Govt. involvement? [2] If there is, it seems unlikely that the link provided here is at all relevant. The only thing that corresponds between the two is the day of the year. The description in no way matches what's occurring.

The Kneejerk Gameplan

Listen up, Anon, this is serious business. We don't want to go all LOL LEGION FREE BOXES TILE SAMPLES PIZZA on them. That won't solve shit. It'll probably justify it. We need to approach this with legitimate means. Flood the callcenters and inboxes of AT&T. Make them confirm that img.4chan.org (make sure its img.4chan.org and not just 4chan.org) is down. Then make the honest threat of service cancellation if this censorship isn't undone. We also should contact the FCC, (Or whichever federal body is the people to contact about this kind of censorship.)

1. DON'T GET CAUGHT VIOLATING THE LAW- Jailed lulzists aren't any use to us. DONT vandalize wikipedia.org.

2. Complain to AT&T(numbers below)- Let them know how big of a deal your /b/ is to you. This isn't about /b/ idiot, is about net neutrality and ISP's not being gate guards for all the world's information.

3. Contact the National Coalition Against Censorship http://www.ncac.org/ -These people can fight with us, send them an email at [email protected], make it quick and to the point, a flood of emails will tip them off to the problem. They can research this on their own. The ACLU may also be a good source (god i hate to say that) http://www.aclu.org/index.html The Electronic Frontier Foundation is DEFINITELY a good source. http://www.eff.org/

3.1 - Use http://www.cnn.com/feedback/tips/newstips.html or other means to self-report this news to major networks, newspapers, and people around the world.

4. Digg to raise awareness http://digg.com/tech_news/AT_T_blocks_4chan/ - Continue to boost hits on other new sites, comment on articles, rate them high, anything to boost popularity.

4.1 The better business bureau http://www.bbb.org/kansas-city/business-reviews/bookkeepers/a-and-t-in-independence-mo-10070144

5. Instead of being pussies and waiting for other people to produce lulz from this AT&T bullshit, Download Reloadevery. This is a Firefox plugin and can be found here: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/115

5.1 Do a google search for 'ATT', the first link is not like the others.

6. Google the following: "AT T blocks 4chan". Do that in 5 or more tabs, then press the little downwards arrow next to the refresh button. Select Enable every 5 seconds, or every 10 if your computer is slow. This will put AT&T on the Google top 100 and that is where journalists are always looking for news stories on the web. Thus the journalists will put this in the news.

7. Remember to not flood the TOR network, bandwith is a scarce resource. If you're too pussy, hide yourself behind 7 proxies instead.

8. If your using AT&T, do some research to find if you can lower your rates by using a different provider. Lower your bills and make a statement at the same time.

9. Contact owners of individual websites who will be sympathetic to our cause. This has already been done with xkcd, I imagine many other webcomic owners will get on board. Try to get them to block AT$T. Try to get them to let 'their' consumers know what AT&T is doing, so that the anger goes towards AT$T. Hence: Shitstorm

10. Contribute to the Colbert Nation Forum, get our man to broadcast this high crime to America: http://forum.colbertnation.com/tcr/board/message?message.uid=105894#U105894

11. Superimpose AT&T's logo on appropriate images that illustrate AT&T's desire to censor what content it deems is unfit for all internet users.

12 IF YOU ARE A CURRENT AT&T SUBSCRIBER, Vow to cancel your service by entering your pledge at this website: http://www.thepoint.com/campaigns/boycott-at-t-internet-services

The objective of this little operation is to basically make sure that this precedent is not set. Make it absolutely abundantly clear that this is NOT acceptable to American consumers and this WILL NOT be allowed to happen, or else face financial and political suicide. Acting like an idiot and trying to DDoS them will only end with you being persecuted (and/or prosecuted), and your actions being used as a justification.

13. Fight with what works: this is David and Goliath. this is the little man and the big evil corporation. this is the honest consumers fighting back by being consumers: by stopping giving them money, by making them look horrible, by causing a PR shitstorm. By having the consumerist press have headlines disparaging AT&T.

14. Multitude of ideas for fighting back here: http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/94pf2/att_is_now_blocking_all_access_to_img4chanorg/c0bf7y6

15. The idea is basically to give them a taste of their own medicine.

16. 'Favorite' and link up youtube videos spreading the word. Do youtube searches for AT&T internet censorship so when people start typing 'AT&T' it pops up the autohelp spreading the word that way.

17. This is bad news for future earnings of NYSE:T if you own the stock be careful, it's illegal to badmouth a stock to media with intent to pump and dump or the reverse.

18. You can post loaded questions to sites like yahoo answers or wikianswers, ask things like (Why does AT&T want the power to censor the interwebs?): http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20060910110255AASBENp

19. Get the actual names and numbers of the managers/developers who are implementing the software that is enabling AT&T to block sites to the users. Get the twitter/blogs/emails/home pages etc, then we can lovingly show them that writing code to give ISP's the ability to censor pages or categories of pages at a whim is something you oppose and eventually quit over, not bend over and code it. This entire shitstorm could probably be resolved over a beer with the individuals involved. They probably have no idea what they do.

20. (DO NOT LET AT&T) PROFIT.

List of sites that have joined in spreading the word and banning AT&T visitors:

http://xkcd.com/

http://chan4chan.com/

http://summaxr.com/

http://www.addic7ed.com/

http://sub-talk.net


This list needs a lot moar sites, so come and join forces. Non-webmasters: visit sites that support the cause!

Twitter hashtag #ATTCensorship has been created, get the word out

Operation: Reverse Censorship

If you run a popular website, please help the cause by banning all AT&T users from your websites, and explain to them why. 12.20.0.0/8, 76.192.0.0/10, 68.88.0.0/13, 75.0.0.0/10, 99.128.0.0/10

AT&T Wireless IP ranges here

Bash script that adds AT&T ip ranges to iptables here.

PHP Code For Blocks/Redirects/Htaccess

http://gist.github.com/156133

http://pastebin.com/f3fa7172a

.htaccess blocking (using mod_rewrite) http://pastebin.com/m1de0b8f8

Response From AT&T

<video type="youtube" id="CwOYwVRa7KU" width="200" height="200" desc="Freak out at the AT&T call center after several million calls from angry /b/tards." frame="true" position="right"/>

 
Shit getting real...
 
AT&T threatens the lulz.

This update comes from http://www.centralgadget.com :

   
“ 		 
Update (8:45 PM 7/26): After over an hour of trying, we finally got someone from AT&T corporate to provide a statement. AT&T has confirmed that they are “currently blocking portions of the internet site 4chan.org”, but states that they are “following the practices of their policy department.”

AT&T went on to say that they did contact (or, at least, attempted to contact, they wouldn’t clarify) the owners of 4chan. They say that they have specific reasons why they blocked these parts of the site, but they would not disclose them to CentralGadget.com. AT&T states that they have requested specific things and changes from 4chan’s owners, and that 4chan has not complied.

Regardless, without a clear explanation of specific rational for blocking 4chan… both 4chan and CentralGadget.com encourage you to continue calling AT&T technical support, and filing your complaints there (escalate as high as possible, we have heard reports that Tier 1 support agents are being told to incorrectly state that AT&T doesn’t block any web site).

Update (9 PM 7/26): Moot, the owner of 4chan, has stated that 4chan has received no contact from AT&T, calling into question if AT&T followed their own protocol when blocking 4chan.
 

„
  		 


Another update from someone who actually knows something, not a PR person at AT&T.

   
“ 		 
There has been alot of customers on our network who were complaining about ACK

scan reports coming from 207.126.64.181. We had no choice but to block that single IP until the attacks let up. It was a decision I made with the gentleman that owns the colo facility currently hosts 4chan. There was no other way around it. I'm sure AT&T is probably blocking it for the same reason. 4chan has been under attack for over 3 weeks, the attacks filling up an entire GigE. If you want to blame anyone, blame the script kiddies who pull this kind of stunt.

Regards, Shon Elliott Senior Network Engineer unWired Broadband, Inc.
 

„
  		 

Source: Nanog

Response from AT&T Online support: The web site http://img.4chan.org. has been blackholed – the IP tech support contact was informed that the site would be blocked before it was blocked. The Technical contact for the IP owner was sent an e-mail. From the network security team. I have included the contact that the customer would need to contact. This is out of our support area and it is up to the site owner to get it resolved. ip route 207.126.64.181 255.255.255.255 192.0.2.1 tag 666 = Blackholed ip route 207.126.64.182 255.255.255.255 192.0.2.1 tag 666 = Blackholed Here is the contact info the customer should contact. Technical Contact : Administrator, Chan [email protected] ATTN: 4CHAN.ORG c/o Network Solutions P.O. Box 447 Herndon, VA20172-0447 Phone: 570-708-8780

AT&T claims they contacted 4chan about the block but moot claims they never did

Here is what happened when AT&T tried to contact 4chan...

Two days saying "message delayed" and then on the third day:

This is an automatically generated Delivery Status Notification

Delivery to the following recipient failed permanently:

[email protected]

Technical details of permanent failure: Google tried to deliver your message, but it was rejected by the recipient domain. We recommend contacting the other email provider for further information about the cause of this error. The error that the other server returned was: 451 451 Temporary local problem - please try later (state 14).

AT&T Contact Information

AT&T is based out of a headquarters in Dallas, Texas. Located below in collapsing tables, are all the contact information a person could need if they wish to discuss this drama with somebody on the AT&T side. It must be stressed that AT&T is not to blame for the assault, do not use these numbers for attacks upon any AT&T employees.

Mailing Addresses

Randall Stephenson, AT&T CEO
[email protected] (business)
[email protected] (personal, phone email
One AT&T Plaza
208 South Akard Street
Dallas, TX 75202
United States
210-351-5401 (direct to his secretary)
+1-210-821-4105 (headquarters, press 3, ask for Mr. Stephenson's office)
fax: 210-351-3553

AT&T Executive Customer Service
MaryMichelle Timbang
AT&T Wireless, HQ - Office of the President
Executive Customer Service
[email protected]

AT&T Residential Service
Customer Service Available weekdays from 7 am to 9 pm and Saturday from 8 am to 5 pm.

Service Center:
1-800-288-2020

Disconnect or transfer service:
1-800-288-2020

"Tier-2" Tech Support:
1-877-SBC-DSL5
AT&T NOC phone:
+1 214-286-5193
All other contact information concerning services can be found here.

Investor relations contacts page.

Phone Numbers

  DO NOT RAGE ON THESE PHONE NUMBERS, SIMPLY COMPLAIN ABOUT THE ISSUE!

Fax:

  • 1-800-310-8129
  • (314) 331-9896
  • 1-800-443-4757
  • 1-847-671-8705
  • 1-214-761-8275
  • 1-678-893-1181
  • 1-908-532-1395
  • 1-888-308-7186
  • 1-678-893-1181
  • 1-908-532-1395
  • 1-404-829-6310
  • 1-800-325-1479
  • 1-704-547-8885
  • 1-678-893-1181
  • 1-925-824-0108
  • 1-214-576-4439
  • 1-907-777-2423

Phone:

  • 1-800-400-1447
  • (210) 821-4105
  • 1-800-759-8195
  • 1-866-879-9476
  • 1-214-576-4413
  • 1-678-893-1200
  • 1-877-272-2544
  • 1-877-444-6944
  • 1-678-893-1200
  • 1-866-336-8278
  • 1-800-325-1480
  • 1-540-983-6233
  • 1-800-228-3751
  • 1-877-SBC-DSL-5 (1-877-722-3755) (Tech Support)

Emails

Relevant Government Entities

While these copy+paste form texts are no longer needed, they are placed here for posterity. Most of the drama caused by this situation was within the lead-up to several legal forms of protest. These are reproduced here to make an example of the lengths that /b/tards will go to protect their board and the rights of other /b/tards who could not stand up and fight for themselves.

Utilities Commissioner

AT&T is regulated by the Utility Commissioner. Find the utility commissioner for your state and complain. The National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners is here http://www.naruc.org/

The US Senate Subcommittee for Communications, Technology and Internet would be the relevant crew to start complaining to for everyone in the United States. Their website is at http://commerce.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Subcommittees.Subcommittee&Subcommittee_ID=d930b6ed-f970-4289-83c7-4a6e60ced4e2

The US House of Representatives also has a similar committee, located at this website http://energycommerce.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1570&catid=160&Itemid=61

Anyone who is represented by a member of these committees should at least call or e-mail their congressional representative. Even better if you physically show up at his or her office in your district during their public grievance hours. Anyone who is not represented by these Congressmen can still spam their own representatives.

Use this link to write to your local representative, tell them your thoughts https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml

You can also write to Barack Obama http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/

Email Copy-Pasta

To Whom It May Concern:

It has recently come to my attention that AT&T is now blocking a large community of Internet users from certain sites. AT&T has denied this as of my writing this, but several reports are streaming in from all over the Internet, and AT&T users who have called tech support have reportedly been told that AT&T is, in fact, blocking a few popular message boards on 4chan.org-- a website that, I believe, was ranked as the 4th most popular website on the Internet. AT&T thus far has been unable to provide any valid justification as to why they suddenly started to block certain sections of 4chan.

This sudden filter on AT&T traffic seems to be no less than their attempt to censor portions of the Internet that have been deemed unfit for their customers. The actions of AT&T have removed control from the customers to determine what web pages they can or cannot view. This is a blatant violation of Net Neutrality. AT&T has taken it upon themselves to police the internet on behalf of their customers, who have no say at all in the matter. The choice is simply to let AT&T decide what is best for you to visit on the web, or switch to another provider. The latter may not even be an option for customers in areas where AT&T has no competitors for Internet service.

AT&T needs to be advised that the customers will assume their own rights in regards to the type and content of the internet. They cannot be allowed to block even one site. If they are allowed to continue this filtration of web traffic, it is only a matter of time before more websites fall victim to this censorship.

I trust that you will agree with me, and hopefully will be able to assist in maintaining the freedom of the Internet. We do not need the "Great Firewall of America."

Below I have listed a few popular websites that have done stories on this issue.

Signed, Anonymous

Copy-pasta for your local congressman & the FCC

Yesterday, AT&T violated the principle of net neutrality, completely blocking access to img.4chan.org. This action is in contradiction to the spirit of a country such as ours, where access to information is seen not as a commodity, but as our right as American citizens. I am personally appalled that a company that specifically stated in the merger agreement submitted to the FCC that allowed it to become the largest ISP in the country that it would not do anything like this has reneged on its commitment to its customers and to the nation, six months after the expiration of that clause. The timing on this couldn't be better. AT&T has decided to see exactly where its limits are now that it is no longer bound by that agreement.

In January 2007, a bill was introduced that would have made this action illegal. Our president was one of the co-sponsors of that bill, and the Democratic Party in general was the impetus behind it. I hope you will bring this egregious violation of the rights of 15% of the internet-using American public to the attention of your fellow Commerce, Science, and Transportation committee members as soon as possible, and (whether through modification of the bill introduced two years ago or through the authorship of a new bill) attempt to safeguard my right, the right of the rest of your constituents, and the right of every American citizen to unfettered internet access, free from the censorship that could eventually lead to an Orwellian megacorporation controlling what we can and cannot see. If our elected government has seen fit not to violate net neutrality, the corporations we pay for internet access surely have no right. Please do everything in your power to remind them of this.

Thank you for your time.

AnonTalk Is To Blame

 
A graphical depiction of what really happened...whoops.

It has been speculated by Fox News [3] that the obvious cause behind all this trouble is Kimmo Alm, owner of anontalk.com, who has since 2007 been waging a war against 4chan via spam and DDoS, but starting summer 2009, has been encouraging his user base to write lots of false reports in about 4chan. Kimmo also considers /b/ and /r9k/ to be AnonTalk's main competition.

Going by AT&T's statement, one of these things happened:

  1. Kimmo has succeeded in sending lots of false complaints to AT&T, Cogent Communications, and others. According to AT&T's July 27, 2009 press release [4] it was a single AT&T customer getting DDoS'd so for each ISP that blocked 4chan, it could have been a single pedo making complaints.
  2. Kimmo has been spoofing img.4chan.org's IP addresses to DDoS random people. AT&T, Cogent, and Comcast each have gotten something like 887,000 incoming requests from someone spoofing that IP so far and climbing. In addition, when he does DDoS, he uses botnets going through the major ISPs as well.
  3. Kimmo has been filling /b/ with child pornography and this was why AT&T decided to block it.

Solution

   
“ 		 
You catch more flies with honey than you do vinegar.
  		„
  		 

—Wise old proverb that even though it's been proven wrong should probably be added to the main graphic on /b/.

Should you chose to become involved there are several means to achieve your ends. The most simple solution would be to contact AT&T and let them know that Anontalk is responsible for all the hassle that has occurred during this whole affair. Do this en masse, and do not let up. Only by taking a rational and sane approach to this situation, will you be able to get anything done. Remember, this is a corporate entity, they will not respond to random fax attacks or any sort of internet mischief. You will get far much more done only by being legal and upfront about your concerns and being civil in your comments.

Damning Images

 
You want DRAMA? you got it!
 
A most wretched hive of scum and villainy
 
And then...

Conspiracy?

 
are you sure you are prepared?

Was this an honest mistake on the part of AT&T? To some, it doesn't matter. Many Anons are raging simply because the block happened at all, eschewing the evidence that Anontalk is the culprit, they still believe that AT&T is an enemy to be dealt with at a later date.

   
“ 		 
AT&T has narrowly escaped a PR Nightmare by convincing many that the inaccessibility of 4chan by paying customers was an honest mistake. Hell, wasn't it Pakistan that had youtube.com inaccessible for a day because of some DNS routing shenanigans? Did people let that slide and give Pakistan the benefit of the doubt after they fixed the problem? Fiddling with TCP/IP and causing a malfunction in the communication between some clients and some servers should be punishable by big fines and jailtime. Users trust the ISP's to deliver all Content, not just the parts that are in bed with AT&T. Toying with this kind of internet control is an extreme breach of user trust, notice the name: "Internet Service Provider" Not "Internet Content Filtering Provider". The decision to block access to certain websites will always be viewed as the worst kind of system damage. The internet routes around System Damage and Censorship, but we will be unable to do this if ISP's develop the ability to "cancel or allow" a website based on arbitrary reasons not disclosed to the media or government or users.
  		„
  		 

—Still unhappy with the outcome, many /b/tards will not rest until all those responsible pay.

Media Attention

 
For over 9000 generations the /b/tards were the guardians of lulz on the internets. Before the dark times. Before the AT&T censorship block
 
This is what happens when someone fucks with the 4chan
 
AT&T was like this Monday afternoon 07/27/2009, Realizing that what they had done was akin to a 13 year old whacking a Hornets nest with a stick on a hot afternoon in mid July.
 
moot asks for corporate sponsors, servers so not cash?

Irrelevant Sites

Since all raids have been called off and the general attitude towards AT&T has cooled, the following sites, which were originally to have been contacted concerning Net Neutrality and censorship, are no longer relevant to anything involving the AT&T block of 4chan. They are, however, excellent places to contact concerning the evil of Anontalk.

Future Outlets

We need more official outlets (CNN, MSNBC, Comedy Central). Let these people know that Anontalk was responsible.

TOW

Use TOW by making LEGITIMATE edits and references (like this Fox News one specifically mentioning AnonTalk) to help spread the word. Be sure to include the facts: Anontalk was responsible.

Further Reading

 

AT&T Blocks 4chan is part of a series on

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Featured article July 28, 2009
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