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Verizon Blocking 4chan

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the and-nothing-of-value-was-lost dept.

An anonymous reader writes "According to 4chan's owner and administrator 'moot,' Verizon has explicitly blocked all traffic on their network from boards.4chan.org, where all of 4chan's boards are located. Moot explains that only traffic to and from port 80 is being dropped and they were able to confirm that it was intentional. 4chan's downtime for Verizon users has been in effect for at least 72 hours since Saturday, February 7."

21 of 677 comments (clear)

  1. DOOMED I say... DOOMED! by Q-Hack! · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Rules #5, #6, and #7

    Verizon, you are doomed. Pissing off 4chan is probably the worst thing you can do on the Internet.

    --
    Some days I get the sinking feeling Orwell was an optimist.
    1. Re:DOOMED I say... DOOMED! by e2d2 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      4chan is a bunch of bitches compared to Verizon. One has an army of juveniles the other has an army of congressmen. Which one do you think will win?

      Sure the juveniles have anonymity and a mob willing to play unfair, but what are they gonna do? Attack Verizon? That happens everyday. Boycott them? Get in line. Complain? No solution there.

      Looks like 4chan is shit out of luck. They need to convince people they are obeying the law or else they'll just keep getting nailed and it will get worse. Having pedo-porn posted on your site every single day is not a freedom of speech issue.

    2. Re:DOOMED I say... DOOMED! by toastar · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Sorry, your analogy doesn't work as it doesn't reference cars in any way.

      Indeed, ISP's are more like Cab Drivers.

      Imagine if you flag down a cab at the airport, You tell him to go to the west side of town. Half way to your destination you tell him you're going to a strip club. He says he can't take you there. What do you do?
      I'd say get out, Refuse to pay, and call another cab.

      In this case If i couldn't access the site after complaining I'd cancel the service and refuse to pay the bill as they refused to provide unfiltered internet access as they agreed.
      It's the same shit as when they block port 25. Call them and complain and if they can't fix it, go somewhere else.

      Besides who needs to access 4chan from their phone anyway

    3. Re:DOOMED I say... DOOMED! by ArhcAngel · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Obligatory didn't read article....

      Is it Verizon Wireless or Verizon that is blocking 4chan? If it's Verizon does the block affect the wireless group as well?

       

      --
      "A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K
    4. Re:DOOMED I say... DOOMED! by sanosuke001 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Regardless of his poor understanding of US law; ISP's should be considered common carriers whether they want to or not. ISP's should not be in the business of censoring anything.

      --
      -SaNo
    5. Re:DOOMED I say... DOOMED! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      If 4chan as a group takes issue with this, everyone down to the CEO of Verizon will be essentially fair game for various levels of harassment. They'll have the address and private phone number of anyone who matters within days, and they, probably more than anyone, know how to abuse such information.

      So let me get this straight.

      A group of dissidents threatens anyone who disagrees with them with harassment and possible bodily harm (like no one would ever use the home addresses of the CEO, CFO, CIO etc for nefarious means), so that people fear the group enough to cow their every demand? I think we have a name for such people...

      And this from someone who hopes the big V goes down in flames.

    6. Re:DOOMED I say... DOOMED! by jtownatpunk.net · · Score: 4, Interesting

      It's not that they've pissed of 4chan. They've pissed off ME. And I don't know what 4chan is beyond a reputation that it's supposedly more childish than fark and slashdot combined. All I know is Verizon's decided I'm not allowed to view a site that doesn't appear to be breaking any laws.

      And if that wasn't bad enough, customer service is pushing it under the rug. I just spent 20 of the stupidest minutes on the phone with Verizon listening to some smarmy shit apologize that I mistakenly perceived that I was being blocked. This is clearly a device issue as he can access boards dot 4chan dot org on two devices with no trouble at all. But he wouldn't even consider opening a ticket until I'd gone through every troubleshooting step in the book. Including a HARD RESET. (For those who aren't familiar with the lingo, that's the one where you reset the device to factory fresh.) Only then would he have opened a ticket. And the whole time, he's insisting that Verizon isn't blocking the site, saying I shouldn't trust blogs. Nevermind the fact that Verizon has admitted that they're blocking traffic and plan to lift the block tonight. After playing along with his bullshit for 20 minutes, I just couldn't stay on the phone any longer without calling him a lying sack of shit so I hung up.

      Which, of course, is exactly what Verizon wants. They didn't have to open a ticket documenting a problem. My call just got logged as an uncooperative customer who refused to complete the troubleshooting process.

      The worst part is they could have had the same effect if they'd just said, "We apologize for the inconvenience. Some of 4chan's affiliates were staging network attacks and we chose to block traffic from that site until the problem was resolved. There have been no attacks coming from that network today so we're going to restore access this evening." That's it. A simple statement that tells the customer what is going on, doesn't require opening a ticket, and ends with a happy customer. Perhaps even grateful. Or at least one who isn't pissed off.

      Oh, and the best part of the call came a couple minutes after I hung up. "FREE VZW MSG-DO NOT REPLY:Start > Settings > All Settings > System tab > Memory > Clear Storage tab Enter 1234, tap OK in upper right of screen Display: Confirm"

      Yep, that text message popped up on my phone shortly after I hung up on the tech. WinMo folks should recognize the Hard Reset instructions. I don't suggest you follow those instructions as it will wipe your WinMo phone clean. No explanation or warning came with that message. I assume he sent it for the lolz, hoping I'd follow the instructions blindly.

      BTW, if you call Verizon's Network Repair Bureau at (866) 298-5373 as advised by 4chan, they won't do anything for you unless you have a ticket which you must get by calling Customer Care at 800-922-0204. Of course, it'll take you a good half hour of bullshit (and hard-resetting your phone!) to get a ticket assigned. But I suggest every Verizon customer who gives a shit about censorship should call anyway and let them know how you feel about censorship.

    7. Re:DOOMED I say... DOOMED! by xeoron · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I have Verizon DSL, and I can access 4chan, so either they stopped blocking the IP range, or it only impacts people whom use Verizon as their DNS Server.

    8. Re:DOOMED I say... DOOMED! by Red+Flayer · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Yes, they are. Demonstrably. They would have long ago forced ISPs to filter if they weren't.

      Please show me the documentation demonstrating that any single ISP, or any group of ISPs, or ISPs in general, have common carrier status.

      The modern ISP marketplace is defined by the very fact that they are NOT common carriers, and thus not subject to regulation under Title II of the Communications Act. This is why we do not have choice in broadband suppliers at the local level.

      Instead, some of the benefits of common carrier status have been conferred upon ISPs via the Communications Decency Act, which made them not liable for 3rd-party communications across their networks. Common-carrier status, however, has not been ascribed.

      The key here is that ISPs get most of the benefits of common carrier status, without any of the drawbacks. They escape the kind of regulation that opens them up to competition in providing data service, and the kind of oversight that would require them to provide decent service... yet they can pick and choose what packets get delivered at what speed (if at all) and at what cost.

      If ISPs had common carrier status, they could not throttle certain users based upon inequitable usage. They could not choose to deprecate certain kinds of data. Data transmission would need to be 100% content-agnostic. I think it makes sense -- but they'd need to shift to a different pricing model, a tiered one based on usage volume, to make it work.

      --
      "Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
    9. Re:DOOMED I say... DOOMED! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Ah, so you feel the terrorists will when then?

      Fuck 4chan and the horse they road in on, pissing off Verizon is a little different than going after CoS.

      Verizon has FAR money, FarFar more knowledge about finding people on the Internet, and won't have a problem bringing in government backing to find the attackers globally.

      They would be attacking the very people that make it so they can perform the attacks. When you piss of one major arms dealer cause you are a retard, the others aren't going to sit around at wait to be next.

      Let them attack Verizon, the sooner they do the sooner they'll disapper, and nothing of value will be lost.

      And how much does VZW pay you, you frikkin' twit?

    10. Re:DOOMED I say... DOOMED! by BronsCon · · Score: 4, Interesting

      And if I were new here (perhaps a displaced /b/tard) and had RTFA, I would have known that the block actually only affects VZW.

      Here's where 4chan organizes, everyone buys a 3G card and plan from VZW, and torrents like mad. When VZW's entire 3G network comes to a grinding halt, the message will have been made. I'd post this idea directly to /b/ (not really!!) but I'm in the last 5 days of a 2 week ban... meh... w/e.

      But, you say, Verizon will be more than happy to take money from a bunch of /b/tards. Right, but will they be happy to lose business when their Droid, BlackBerry, and WinMo users have no access for a week, while AT&T's iPhone, BlackBerry, and WinMo users are unaffected? Will they be delighted at the lost income when tens of thousands of tweens and teens can't send MMS messages (remember, those are a data service, not sent via the control channel like SMS)?

      Also, don't forget the likelihood that many of the type of people who would willingly participate in such a scheme are likely to:
      A) Open the account with fraudulent or stolen identity information
      or B) Not give two craps about their credit and just not pay the bill

      In the end, should something like this occur, it would be BAD for Verizon.

      --
      APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
    11. Re:DOOMED I say... DOOMED! by Kirijini · · Score: 3, Interesting

      ISPs are not common carriers. Not under current US laws.

      Per 47 USC 153 (44), any "telecommunications carrier" is a common carrier to the extent of its telecommunications services. Telecommunications services are defined under (46) as the offering of telecommunications, which is defined under (43) as the transmission of information of the user's choosing, between points specified by the user, without change in form or content of the information as sent and received. In contrast, "information services" is defined under (20) as the offering of the capability to use information "via telecommunications." Note that these definitions have been summarized by me to exclude some bits. Thus, providers of information services, unlike telecommunication carriers, are not subject to mandatory common carriage regulations (who are subject to those regulations only the extent of their telecommunications service).

      The FCC decided in High-Speed Access to the Internet over Cable, Declaratory Ruling & NPRM, 17 FCC Rcd 4798 (2002) that internet access provided by cable companies was an "information service" and not a "telecommunications service." (Some of the logic here is that users' don't know exactly where they're getting or sending information from/to, and do not choose all of the information they are sending or receiving, thus internet use does not fall under the telecommunications definition. Not saying I think that's a good interpretation) Therefore, such ISPs are not subject to mandatory common carriage regulations, but may be regulated by the FCC under its ancillary powers.

      The United States Supreme Court upheld the FCC's interpretation in National Cable & Telecommunications Association v. Brand X Internet Services, 545 U.S. 967 (2005).

      The FCC has subsequently found that the provision of internet access over telephone wires (DSL) is an information service in Appropriate Framework for Broadband Access to the Internet over Wireline Facilities, R&O and NPRM, 20 FCC Rcd 14853 (2005).

      I hope this puts to rest all of the claims here on Slashdot that ISPs are Common Carriers. (yeah right).

      Here's another way of looking at it. Common carriage means that the carrier must provide open service to any who ask for it at a reasonable rate (See 47 USC 201 & 202). If, for example, Comcast was a common carrier in regard to cable internet service, it would be required to permit independent cable internet service providers to directly compete with its cable internet service, using its own wires. Ditto for Verizon and DSL. I remember, a long time ago (1998, to be exact), getting cable internet from a small company in Carlisle Pennsylvania called PlanetCable. I have no idea if they still exist, but its unlikely - because they don't own the cable lines, and so their existence depends on the local cable company allowing them to use their lines. And why would a cable company permit a service to compete against it, using the cable company's own infrastructure?

  2. Fraud? by DoofusOfDeath · · Score: 5, Interesting

    So Verizon sold me internet service. Implicit in that is service to all internet hosts.

    Has Verizon criminally defrauded me?

  3. rebellion? by Lord+Ender · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Didn't some kid just get three years in jail for participating in an anti-Scientology DoS attack which was organized on 4chan?

    Will that be enough to keep the users in line?

    --
    A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
  4. Re:I feel split in this matter by Jeng · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I would imagine all this does is give 4chan something to bitch about.

    The main downside is that there are people trying to reach 4chan who cannot, and therefor will visit other parts of the internet. Before now they were contained, now Verizon broke containment.

    --
    Don't know something? Look it up. Still don't know? Then ask.
  5. Working 4hrs ago by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Interesting

    I have verizon fios and was on the photography & wallpaper boards just this morning. I'm wondering if the ban is only for the 18+ boards?

  6. Re:I CAN HAZ KITTY PORN? by scorp1us · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I don't know much about the #chans, but I don't think 4chan is the kiddie one. Infact the little #chan research I've done (after someone said to me:"You DONT piss off 4chan!", me:"WTF is 4chan?") was that 4chan expelled the kiddie porn people a while back, proving, that 4chan does have limits, which was news to me.

    --
    Slashdot's rate-of-post filter: Preventing you from posting too many great ideas at once.
  7. Yeah but which year? by IceFoot · · Score: 2, Interesting

    ...in effect for at least 72 hours since Saturday, February 7.
    (Looks at calendar, sees today is Monday February 8.)
    For 25 points, this happened to 4chan in WHICH YEAR?

  8. Re:I feel split in this matter by jgtg32a · · Score: 4, Interesting

    4chan is the radio active waste dump of the internet and for the most part all of their shenanigans tend to stay at 4chan, when you close 4chan it spreads.

  9. Re:I feel split in this matter by jtownatpunk.net · · Score: 3, Interesting

    "To protect both, we eliminated connectivity to the IP address. At no time was 4Chan itself blocked."

    Oh, I get it. They didn't 'block' 4chan. They simply 'eliminated connectivity'.

  10. Re:Is all the hate really necessary? by russotto · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The difference between 4chan and Slashdot is that Slashdot knows the meaning of responsibility to the Internet community

    Don't fall into the trap of letting your opponents define what is "responsible". Once you do, it's not long before you're screaming that anyone who posts a certain hex number starting with 09 F9 is "irresponsible" and will be the cause of the authorities shutting down the Internet.