Shitstorm Averted? AT&T Restores Access To 4chan (Which Is Now Under DDoS Attack)
July 27, 2009 ·Filed Under Technology News
AT&T has made even more folks than usual angry when it started blocking/filtering parts of 4chan late last night. The popular report board, famous for being able to brew online (and offline) shitstorms like no other web property could, saw portions of its publication - including /r9k/ and the infamous /b/ - blocked for AT&T customers across the United States. Quickly sufficient, there was a lot of rallying going on, with 4chan members and fans virtually gathering to plot digital riots and all-round mayhem.
An update on the situation as of 8 AM Eastern instance: access to 4chan has apparently been restored, with AT&T reportedly confirming the hours-long block of portions of the site, “following the practices of their policy branch.”
AT&T went on to say that they contacted (or at least attempted to contact) the owners of 4chan, which Moot vehemently denies. AT&T told CentralGadget that they have specific reasons why they blocked these parts of the site, but they would not reveal them, further stating
Meanwhile, 4chan is apparently under DDoS attack, supposedly considering of the attention the site has been getting for the past 12 hours. The site is sometimes down, sometimes up but very slow, according to various reports. Note that that is not AT&T’s responsibility and quite possibly even the reason for the company to have made the dangerous decision of restricting access to the note board in the first place.
Updates coming, including some of the actions taken by 4chan members and friends to retaliate.
Update 1: this thread on Digg (760 votes and counting) pointed to a now-removed fake exposition at CNN’s iReport about the death of AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson.
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