
Apparently AT&T has started blocking 4chan - vaksel
http://zip.4chan.org/g/res/5163554.html
======
Xichekolas
Latest theory seems to be that AT&T is doing this because there is constant
on-going DDoS of img.4chan.org via AT&T's network. If this is true, then AT&T
is presumably implementing a temporary block to _help_ 4chan.org avoid this
DDoS (and save itself from the flood of DDoS traffic).

(Citing the ongoing discussion in /x/ here:
<http://zip.4chan.org/x/res/2338751.html#2339847> and this thread on
DSLReports: <http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r22770292->)

~~~
omail
The full DSLReports thread is at
<http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,22769947> . In a later post apeface,
an AT&T employee, wrote:

"Well, I didn't see 207.126.64.182 or 207.126.64.181 in any block lists in the
uverse routers , but that isn't to say they aren't blocked on the backbone
someplace. We obviously aren't blocking the entire site or any particular link
due to content because I can still access everything else but the links using
the IP's above. If we where going to block a site, it wouldn't normally just
be bits and parts, it would be all of it."

EDIT: apeface confirms AT&T has img.4chan.org blocked at the backbone.

------
chaosmachine
First, they came for 4chan. But I didn't go to 4chan.

~~~
tsally
I'm pretty sure they are capable of defending themselves. Wouldn't want to be
an AT&T exec right now. Not saying its justified, but their past behavior
speaks to what probably will happen.

~~~
blazamos
4chan is unprofitable/barely profitable (depends on the month). The only way
they can legally defend themselves is through the generosity of a third-party
(EFF).

Or just hack AT&T into oblivion.

~~~
vaksel
when people say 4chan, they don't mean 4chan the company, they mean the
thousands of people with skills to make your life a living hell.

~~~
jonny_noog
Indeed. They usually mean ... * cue dramatic music * ... Anonymous.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anonymous_%28group%29>

Though I'm not sure if I would go so far as to say "the thousands of people
with skills to make your life a living hell", I would probably have said "the
thousands of people with the time to make your life a living hell". I don't
think many of them are that skilled.

------
jrockway
As I always say when I see censorship, this will just force more people to use
Tor. One day the entire 'net will be encrypted and obfuscated, and tracking
down the actual criminals will be impossible. (It's inevitable, of course, but
you'd think ISPs and governments wouldn't want to force ordinary people to use
tools like Tor just to chat with their friends on a message board. The more
commonplace it becomes, the more bonehead criminals will be using it. And that
makes stopping real crime much harder.)

When will people learn that whole point of the Internet is to make censorship
impossible?

~~~
snprbob86
What can we do to help accelerate this?

I'd like to see everything encrypted and opaque to carriers all the time. How
do we get there?

~~~
michaelfairley
The I2P project (<http://www.i2p2.de/>) is working on creating an entirely
anonymous, encrypted internet that layers on top of the regular internet. It's
open source and welcomes contributions from talented hackers.

------
omail
I'd like to see how 4chan responds. They are not the type to take things like
this lightly.

~~~
Xichekolas
I don't even visit 4chan, but as an AT&T customer this pisses me off. What
other websites are they going to protect me from?

Not sure what other option I have sadly. My local cable monopoly has a
ridiculously low bandwidth cap with overage fees that make it pretty much
unusable.

Isn't there some way we can use common carrier/net neutrality rules on this?

~~~
helveticaman
You know, in Chile there is now a cable provider that promotes its lack of
caps on p2p. It actually plays it up. <http://www.bandaancha2.cl/>

Goes to show capitalism works.

------
semiquaver
Submitter: It's a bad idea to link to a 4chan thread for this story, which are
by their nature extremely transitory. Your link is already 404'd.

~~~
NathanKP
It is 404'd because it is being blocked. That is the whole point.

~~~
kragen
I don't think so. I can see more recent threads on 4chan, no problem. I think
the thread has just expired.

------
jacquesm
Any guesses as to what is the reason ?

If linking to copyrighted or objectionable content is in there somewhere I'd
suggest that AT&T block google, that way we'll get some solid case law about
this.

Possibly the FCC will step in. Also, after this how will AT&T claim common
carrier status ?

~~~
po
Hanlon's razor:

Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.

Perhaps ATT just corrupted their DNS servers or something.

~~~
qeorge
According to the thread on reddit, AT&T had been contacted and said that the
site was in fact blocked:

[http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/94pf2/att_is_now...](http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/94pf2/att_is_now_blocking_all_access_to_img4chanorg/)

They of course don't say _who_ called AT&T, so who knows.

~~~
reduxredacted
The skepticism in your comment is apparent, but I thought I'd add:

The source is unnamed.

The source may very well be telling the truth. I've contacted customer service
at AT&T U-Verse. I've never had fewer than three transfers and the person I
end up with, while almost always being very polite and sounding as though
they're smiling through the telephone ... generally has no idea what's going
on.

The conversation could have gone like this:

Caller: It looks like 4chan is being blocked. I can't access it from my
(DSL/U-Verse) connection. [... after a few minutes of sorting out what 4chan
is ...]

Rep: I can't seem to access that web page, it says it's blocked.

[...click...comment...]

Just a guess :o)

------
3pt14159
I have a connection to someone fairly high up there. I gave him/her a synopsis
of the situation, and how it isn't a good idea to mess with 4chan.

~~~
sailormoon
While I love 4chan and Anon, taking on the likes of AT&T - a hundred-billion-
dollar corporation with ties to the NSA - might be just a _little_ different
than humiliating, say, Adam Goldstein. Government or the _en masse_ consuming
public are the only ones with any say here.

On another note - anyone remember the good old days when claiming AT&T had NSA
ties would be dismissed as a conspiracy theory? Oh, how innocent we were ...

~~~
Xichekolas
My guess is they won't try and take on the company directly. After all, you
can't DDoS AT&T. But they can definitely make life pretty crappy for the
people running AT&T with endless pranks, and they can raise a royal stink in
the news.

What I don't get is why bother? The /b/tards are just going to make some other
place their home.

------
jeffbradberry
I have DSL through AT&T, yet img.4chan.org/b/imgboard.html does not appear to
be blocked for me. Perhaps there is some other problem at work here?

------
omail
For those of you on AT&T's network who want to test this, turn off images in
your browser and access

<http://img.4chan.org/b/imgboard.html>

This is a _very_ NSFW website. Only part of it is said to be blocked.
4chan.org should still be accessible. It is slow, at least for me, so wait for
a few minutes before reporting it as blocked.

~~~
vaksel
/b/ is 4chan, sure there are other portions of it, but 99% of content happens
on /b/

~~~
crcoffey
Thats quite an ignorant statement.

/b/ has become... ridiculous, most older anon's avoid it completely. /b/ is
mostly full of children trying to jump on the bandwagon.

------
reduxredacted
I'm on AT&T (U-Verse), though not a 4chan user (I actually don't even know how
to test that the /b/ board is working or not, though I'd be interested in
trying).

A few months ago I couldn't access drudgereport.com and a few others sites
reliably for several days. It worked via vpn from work, and on the neighbor's
Comcast connection, but those of us in my area on U-Verse were getting server
connection resets.

I don't attribute it to network filtering (Hanlon's razor as mentioned in
another comment ... and I work for a large telecom ... sometimes the tubes
need to be snaked).

Though we ruled out DNS -- I use OpenDNS and we tested the Comcast connections
set up to use OpenDNS which worked fine. There was at least one other person
outside of my home state that experienced the same problem on U-Verse as well.

~~~
skorgu
There are instructions for visiting 4chan upthread, it's extremely NSFW.
<http://status.4chan.org/> is a SFW status blog which will check if sites are
'up' from your browser, "img" is the server that hosts /b/ (and /r9k/ as well
I believe).

------
yesimahuman
If this is true, I'm going to cancel my service. We have a few other options
in Madison. Not that I frequent 4chan but that's besides the point. I don't
agree with them blocking any sites.

~~~
andreyf
According to their official blog, it is true:
<http://status.4chan.org/index.html#1567027617431107851>

------
jsz0
Seems very slow via a Level 3 uplink. (is that normal?) Probably something
else going on here but I suppose overreacting is more fun?

------
holdenk
Reading some of the threads, people are suggesting that they go out and cut
AT&T fiber (hopefully people are too lazy to do this).

But in all seriousness, if this does turn out to be an attempt at filtering,
does anyone have recommendations on things that could be done by non-AT&T
customers to help convince AT&T that this is a bad idea?

------
michaelneale
A lot of the comments on the wider internet are of the tone "oh I wonder what
4chan will do, AT&T have messed up this time" - but isn't that missing the
point - that AT&T have censored a site? I didn't know that was the done thing,
ever (in the US). I mean people are free to go to other ISPs, but it does seem
a bit odd...

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tlrobinson
Anyone have a list of IP blocks owned/used by AT&T?

I'd like to make a script that can be embedded on webpages that notifies users
that their ISP has begun censoring their internet connections, along with
instructions on how to complain to AT&T.

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thingie
Well, free municipal wifi network of Praha 9 blocks 4chan too (so I can't see
the page either). :-)

------
kiba
I can still access 4chan even though I have AT&T as ISP provider. Why?

------
auston
I was able to access 4chan.org from my iPhone (in Fl)?

~~~
Devilboy
It's only /b/ which is on img.4chan.org/b/ (different IP address)

~~~
tlrobinson
Works on my iPhone as well.

------
mieses
Apple legal is behind this. Someone on 4chan made fun of Apple. Apple then
called ATT and threatened to take away their iPhones.

