AT&T is now blocking all access to img.4chan.org, effectively blacklisting /b/ and censoring the internet.

knight666

First they came for the pedophiles, and I said nothing, for I was not a pedophile.

xkcd

What IP blocks do their corporate offices have? If they're really cutting off my trashy time-wasting web entertainment, I'm cutting off theirs.

comment_unrelated

I work at ATT, customer service, and I didn't know this was going to go down. But I have a feeling tomorrow is going to suck in some way I can't imagine at the moment.

mushroomblue

have a confirmed report of AT&T blocking it in the Detroit, MI area as well.

The Great Firewall will appear gradually. eventually, it'll spread far and wide. this is the begining.

TheDeadMethod

I can't wait to see /b/'s reaction. Given all the obnoxious shit they did over scientology, a part of me thinks they'd put on quite a show in the name of something that actually affects them.

allotriophagy

AT&T are about to receive a lot of free boxes and floor tile samples.

girlvinyl

Hello. I run encyclopediadramatica.com. Myself and my administrators are working on this and investigating it.

If you know how to wiki and have something to add: http://encyclopediadramatica.com/AT%26T_Blocks_4Chan

weaselheart

Sigh. And so it begins....

I'm not saying this is the end of the internet, but it does seem the beginning of the end.

There's been an increasing trend to license, censor and monetize the web for some time, and I can't help but think it's accelerating. Unfortunately, when you have politicians, the police and media companies all on the same side against freedom. It's unlikely they'll lose.

A pity, because I think the world would be a better and more interesting place if they did.

nexterday

Tracert time! (first hops removed for privacy) From a U-verse served box:

$ tracert img.4chan.org
traceroute to img.4chan.org (207.126.64.181), 30 hops max, 40 byte packets
 1  xx-xx-xx-xx.lightspeed.livnmi.sbcglobal.net (xx.xx.xx.xx)  1.708 ms  1.696 ms  1.822 ms
 2  xx-xx-xx-xx.lightspeed.livnmi.sbcglobal.net (xx.xx.xx.xx)  23.129 ms  23.462 ms  24.533 ms
 3  75.26.93.190 (75.26.93.190)  25.072 ms  25.437 ms  25.440 ms
 4  75.26.64.14 (75.26.64.14)  26.845 ms  27.168 ms *
 5  75.26.64.6 (75.26.64.6)  30.799 ms  31.574 ms  32.549 ms
 6  * * *
 7  * * *
 8  * * *
 ....
 30 * * *
 $

75.0.0.0/10 is all AT&T. I have not had this go through yet, for either img.4chan.org IP (I see two, 207.126.64.181/31)

Trying again from a different box (you could say it is multi-homed...):

$ tracert img.4chan.org
traceroute to img.4chan.org (207.126.64.181), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
 1  * * *
 2  tenge0-0-0-0x9.aa2.mich.net (198.108.22.185)  0.719 ms  0.735 ms  0.761 ms
 3  xe-0-1-0x76.eq-chi2.mich.net (198.108.23.12)  6.100 ms  6.104 ms  6.102 ms
 4  12.90.96.5 (12.90.96.5)  6.437 ms  6.485 ms  6.486 ms
 5  cr2.cgcil.ip.att.net (12.123.7.154)  7.624 ms  7.674 ms  7.674 ms
 6  ggr3.cgcil.ip.att.net (12.122.132.13)  6.566 ms  6.500 ms *
 7  192.205.33.194 (192.205.33.194)  6.473 ms  6.416 ms  6.458 ms
 8  te4-1.ccr02.ord03.atlas.cogentco.com (154.54.3.246)  6.450 ms  6.423 ms  6.471 ms
 9  154.54.29.17 (154.54.29.17)  6.660 ms  6.579 ms  6.614 ms
10  te7-2.mpd01.mci01.atlas.cogentco.com (154.54.2.189)  18.584 ms  18.654 ms  18.700 ms
11  te8-4.mpd01.dfw01.atlas.cogentco.com (154.54.5.125)  28.524 ms  28.540 ms *
12  te3-3.mpd01.dfw03.atlas.cogentco.com (154.54.6.94)  29.121 ms  29.089 ms  29.138 ms
13  38.104.35.234 (38.104.35.234)  131.670 ms  131.758 ms  131.178 ms
14  unknown.xeex.net (216.152.253.26)  32.280 ms  32.335 ms  32.287 ms
15  * * *
16  207.126.64.181 (207.126.64.181)  32.184 ms  32.085 ms  32.034 ms
$

Made it this time! Interesting note, AT&T is one of the upstream providers, and it seems this traceroute went through them (before being passed to cogent). So it would appear not ALL of AT&T is blocking - certainly not their transit routers (Tier 1 stuff), but perhaps their customer edge routers are.

I can also make it to 4chan.org from my U-verse box.

It's worth noting that this doesn't conclude for sure that it is AT&T - there could be some non-responsive hops that are dropping it, that may or may not produce ICMP TTL exceeded messages.

koavf

I cannot see this ending well for AT&T.

jsbarone

I have UVerse and I just called AT&T. A Tier 2 Tech Rep ran a bunch of "tests" and he says it appears to be blocked. He's submitting a ticket to the Network Admin team and is going to call me back with a definitive answer. I didn't think the Net Neutrality War would begin so soon.

Kream1

Oh boy. AT&T is dead. They have provoked the beast.

NegatedVoid

Okay. I finally got an answer. I talked to their Tier two and he escalated it and after much holding, he has a definitive answer.

AT&T has blackholed the IP addresses involved. Supposedly they've notified the related parties (A company called Net Asset whom he tells me i could reach at (559) 650 8111 if i felt the need). He wasn't able to find out definitively why they blackholed img.4chan.org but said it's most likely due to content.

mistercow

Generally, /b/tards are harmless because of their general disorganization. Their biggest weakness is that they cannot stay united against a specific target. Yet in spite of this, they've still gotten some stuff to happen.

So the last thing you want to do is make yourself a target against which all of /b/ will be willing to fight. I think AT&T has made a gigantic mistake.

ghibmmm

It begins?

ejegg

Does this mean they should lose common carrier status? Telcoms have got no liability for illegal things being transmitted over their networks as long as they are completely neutral in serving it. Once they start filtering or censoring, they're responsible for filtering all the bad stuff out.

jamonterrell

If they censor some sites, doesn't that remove their ability to claim common carrier protections?

SventheWonderDog

Shit. I just had a mental image of a bunch of people in pedobear suits marching towards AT&T headquarters throwing marblecake everywhere.

Syphon8

I feel a great disturbance in the force. As if thousands of /b/tards screamed out in anguish and were suddenly silenced.

cc132

Poor, poor AT&T...it's only a matter of time now.

i_am_disappoint

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jack_spankin

4chans' best plan isn't to attack AT&T, it's just far too big to mess with. The better tactic is to attach the personnel. Pick the top President and VP's and harass them like crazy.

Corporations protect themselves very well, they do not protect their employees from personal attack.

If 4chan divided up themselves with 1,000 people harassing per VP, they'd get the job done quick.

nonversation

This is serious, sure it might be "just 4chan" to some, but this is an Isp in the united states actively blocking a website, without your knowledge or consent. If this is allowed, will we not end up like china???

canada432

AT&T in St. Louis. I can't get in.

Sigmar

All you guys who think AT&T is too big to mess with...you don't know the strength and power of Anonymous. They even have strong positions in AT&T, believe me, I know a few /b/ tards that work in their essential offices. This won't last soon...

Tsukuyomi

You can't ban what you don't own. As simple as that. I mean. I'm not for 4chan... I think if they ban that... then what's next? Anything is fair game... next thing you know AT&T will start charging for sites like channels.

Stuff like this shits all over our freedom of speech.

Mike_Kalashnikov

Oh dear. AT&T has no idea who they're messing with.

zemmekkis

If AT&T is smart the blacklist will just magically disappear and 4chan can get back to business.

Unfortunately I'm not sure those paper pushers up there have any idea what kind of PR nightmare they are dealing with.

umilmi81

I switched off AT&T because their service sucked. And I was glad.

I heard AT&T was eager to assist the government in spying on Americans, and I was still glad I switched.

Now I hear this, and I'm still glad I switched.

To anyone with AT&T, just switch. You wont regret it.

BernieMadoff

FUCK AT&T

that-1-guy

Straight talk: Here's my analysis on where this is going, and how we got here:

You are going to say "don't censor the Internet". They are going to say "Your position supports child pornography, we're not going to support child pornography like you want us to." Essentially, their argument will be if you aren't for censorship, then you're for exploiting children. This is how the other side will justify the decision for keeping this site off the net.

Also, take note of how they are actually implementing the block: It's just, "timing out". Nothing to see here, move along (quite literally). Imagine if AT&T had posted a page with a police whistle and a hand saying "This site has been blocked because it has been deemed to contain illegal content." You would have every cable news channel splashing that up in a corner-box over the anchor's shoulder with "Net censorship in the USA, is it here to stay?" along the banner.

But alas, brilliantly on the part of AT&T, they are simply dropping the packets so it almost looks like a technical discrepancy. Nothing to show- nothing to visually latch on to, to get outraged over, nothing on their part to give tangible evidence of this shocking new practice.

I've always known Internet censorship would come to the public Internet in America, I just have been waiting for when. They've already come for the bandwidth by throttling, implementing bandwidth caps, knocking you offline for downloading copyrighted content, limit your account to not having web servers hosting outbound port 80, not using open SMTP port 25 relay but forcing their mail exchanges, re-routing your incorrect DNS entries to their own DNS spam suggestion search pages, and most ISPs have shut off access to newsgroups recently, and NOW... just NOW we have finally started to see outright cherry-picking website blocking.

My friends, this is absolutely no surprise as the slippery slope we've been down trotting for the last several years has brought us unsurprisingly, and almost expectantly, to the news we are hearing this evening.

And starting with a website they can claim is a "common and widely-known distribution hub for child pornography and other widespread illegal activities" is genius on their part so they can steer the conversation from is Internet censorship allowable and the focus on what they are doing, to why are you so obsessed with supporting child pornographers?

umoxi

censorship sucks

canada432

Anybody know anything about the legality of this? I've been trying to find info and all I can really come up with is the case where Verizon blocked Naral Pro-Choice from sending text messages to their supporters, which they then backed off with no legal proceedings. If it is legal it brings up some interesting issues, such as what about areas where ATT is the only provider? Does ATT have complete control over what these people have access to since there's no other option for them? I'm also curious if they've blocked it only for subscribers or if they've blocked it from their network entirely (ATT owns a lot of the infrastructure in the US). If they've blocked it from their network entirely that means ATT has an absurd amount of power over what information people in the US have access to.

alexincode

I'd like to share my experiences with AT&T in Southern California, where I live.

Cox Communications has a monopoly on internet services in Orange County, so, having lived here most my life, I grew up with Cox as my provider. For my first year at university [zot zot zot!] I had on-campus housing that shared the university connection. Amazing speed, although torrent speeds were throttled I believe. There was no spying on our lines or any blocking of content afaik.

I moved out of on-campus housing for this last year and into my first apartment. Although Cox is the de facto internet provider, I am an adventurous lad and I was bothered by the monopoly they have so I decided to try out the competition - eventually settling on AT&T ADSL. Nothing I found other than Cox and AT&T DSL came marginally close as far as price / bandwidth goes.

We ordered 6 mbps, which they said was available in our area. We got the modem and tried to set it up, it took some time and I think they had to come out and fix something. Eventually it worked! Finally internet. It was not easy to go without as a college student and internet addict.

Then my roommate decided to run some speed tests. We had ordered 6 mbps down, we were receiving 1.5. We called tech support and they gave us the run around, eventually informing us that 6 was not actually available to us here. Funny, they had no problem charging us for it. Eventually we got our connection knocked up to 3 mbps somehow, and started paying for that. I don't know why this wasn't enabled in the first place. In retrospect we should have dropped the line and gone with cable at this point given the dishonesty or at least negligence of AT&T internet.

By comparison, people I know get twice as much or far more speed for the same cost on cable lines, even during peak hours.

One of the only positive things about AT&T is that Cox is known to send out cease and desist letters about downloading certain copyrighted stuff. I don't know if this is because AT&T is too small of a target here to get sent the notices, if AT&T is too lazy to take action on the notices, or if they are genuinely protecting their customers.

Now that they are blocking web sites I have another reason to leave them behind, and I soon will regardless.

tl;dr: AT&T ADSL can be difficult to set up, is slower than cable, and they are fucking liars. Confirmed that 4chan images are blocked here.

PickledGrannyClits

Confirmed block in central Texas.

ageddyn

Uh-oh, AT&T: now you're a trending twitter topic. Better watch out, you saw how effective Twitter-fueled protests were in Iran.

blurrie

yup.. can verify it for me too.. vacaville, california

badasslingo

ATT in the Bay Area (silicon valley). I can't get in here.

monkeyman114

Time to switch to cable, sorry AT&T

fullphaser

Well... if you're going to take the wrong site to censor this was it.

RgyaGramShad

Confirmed, not working in Connecticut since Friday morning.

4chan Status says I can't access img.4chan.org, yet downforeveryoneorjustme says it's up.

Traceroute only makes it 3 hops before all requests time out.

Something's definitely going on here.

Also, since the OP's link 404'd, here's a more recent thread about this: http://zip.4chan.org/g/res/5163554.html

Scutters

yes /b/ can be sick but this has surely got to be a blow to free speech?

dopeydoe

"it was funny there was no one left to notice when they came for us"

terraserenus

DFW AT&T here. Can not get in.

Jade8674

I will not be switching to AT&T as I was planning to when my Verizon contract expires at the end of this month.

I don't use /b/, but standing on principle alone I cannot allow myself to fund buffoons who support censorship.

ajrandall

Go after the execs - find whatever dirt you can about them, and this block will crumble from the top down.

Edit: Start here

sagavera

Yup, I use AT&T DSL in southern California and indeed I can't access /b/.

Huplescat22

I’m in central NC and I’m on ATT and now I can’t get 4chan. I don’t care about 4chan, per se, but this is just the foot in the door from an aggressive nazi salesman. I don’t like 4chan but ATT is arguably worse.

Fallout911

This will only end well for anon.

knorby

Someone on AT&T who is being blocked: are they doing this by serving bad dns information? Try switching to OpenDNS or some other alternate DNS service to see if that fixes it (I got 207.126.64.181 and 207.126.64.182). I have noticed comcast and T-Mobile (through my data plan) doing odd stuff with dns information, which is why I am curious.

geofflee

Confirmed in both Berkeley and San Francisco.

bg2500

Boxxy and Lime Cat are probably drawing up plans in the war room as we speak. This will not stand.

PragmaticPipedream

Remember: When the site is unreachable, check status.4chan.org for updates. ..... moot will troll ATT by moving img. boards to another server.

Edit: I couldn't actually get to the page (as ATT is blocking it atm), but if you do a search for img.4chan.org on google it's the second result in the description area of the links.

maximomore

did someone update wikipedia yet.

Junku

So, which one of you assholes is going to start AT&Tchan? Don't be coy, you know you want to.

NerdCore44

i still get it on my iphone

squidkid

i figured it was common knowledge on the internet that nobody in their right mind fucks with /b/. AT&T apparently didn't get the memo.

spikey666

I'd say I'm against censorship no matter what, or maybe that 4 chan freaks me out to end. But honestly, none of that matters. Because if there's one thing I know about the internet, it's that you don't want to piss 4chan (Anonymous) off. I predict Ol' Ma Bell is in for a world of pain.

freetolio

AT&T is the new AOL.

badjoke33

My feelings on the topic are so conflicted...

The_Messen9er

So it begins...

bsfel

A quick search of consumerist.com has turned up the CEO of AT&T's contact information:

Randall Stephenson, AT&T CEO rs2982@att.com (direct) randall.stephenson@att.com phone: 210-351-5401 (direct to his secretary) fax 210-351-3553 alternate phone: 210-821-4105 (headquarters, press 3, ask for Mr. Stephenson's office) 175 E. Houston San Antonio, TX 78205

AlLnAtuRalX

Anonymous 07/26/09(Sun)18:25:12 No.148742300 [Reply] ATTENTION /b/:

img.4chan.org (/b/ and /r9k/ HAVE BEEN BLACKLISTED BY AT&T. NATIONWIDE, IT IS BECOMING INACCESSIBLE. IF AT&T IS YOUR PROVIDER AND YOU ARE ABLE TO VIEW THIS PAGE, THEN WITHIN A MATTER OF HOURS IT WILL BE INACCESIBLE.

IF AT&T IS NOT YOUR PROVIDER, THEN WE NEED TO NOT ALLOW THIS PRECEDENT TO OCCUR. THIS IS CENSORSHIP AND THIS IS DOWNRIGHT DISTURBING.

http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/94pf2/att_is_now_blocking_all_access_to_img4chanorg/

MORE INFORMATION IS AVAILABLE THERE AND ELSEWHERE.

And so it begins.

Pilebsa

That's what you get for using AT&T.

Also, you iPhone idiots are subsidizing that company too. Get rid of your iPhone... eep, I know you won't. Because your principals end where your hipness begins....

qwertasdf

I'm in northern California near Sacramento and have AT&T and can't access it.

iheartbbq

The only way to fight this is to go to the competition. If AT&T is overnight faced with massive defection to competitors it will be forced to reverse course.

I like the idea of thousands of pounds of edible underwear delivered to the CEO of AT&T as much as the next guy, but in cases like this where the company is so closely tied to the gov, the only leverage is money, we have it, they need it, we have the power.

Sigmar

Hello to all AT&T technicians reading this thread. Please leave. Also, The @&War has been declared, anonymous WILL strike. And believe me, they are warmed up! I suggest you guys bring your coats cuz this is gonna be a VERY cold war this summer!

submitted on	26 Jul 2009
points	1785
up votes	2244
down votes	459

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