Mystery shrouds closures of blog, forum platforms

Mystery shrouds closures of blog, forum platforms

news.cnet.com

Two services that enable users to blog or create online forums have disappeared from the Internet under mysterious circumstances.
...
In BurstNet's e-mails to Blogetery...told CNET that executives there terminated service at the direction of a law enforcement agency.

"I can not disclose which agency or why they [ordered the action]," Arcus said. "I can say that this is not a copyright issue." He said he believed BurstNet did not provide Internet service for Ipbfree.com.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Is this the coming Internet censorship we've been hearing about?

Can sites be shutdown by the Obama administration due to 'offensive content'?

"iPBFree is gone forever and it's not possible to retrieve anything," said one of the service's administrators who went by the Twitter handle Connormccarthy. "It wasn't planned. We're exceptionally sorry."

What really has some observers scratching their heads is that it's unclear under what circumstance a law enforcement group could walk in and order an Internet host to boot a customer off the Web without any apparent warning or court order?

Is there an agency that could shut off a site (like ATS) just because it doesn't like the comments by posters?

news.cnet.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

"iPBFree is gone forever and it's not possible to retrieve anything," said one of the service's administrators

Well what a cr@p service!

Do they not back up their files? Do they not allow their clients to?

How can it not be possible to retrieve ANYTHING?

Let me guess the 'pedo' word will be used and it'll all be swept under the rug.

Originally posted by GhostR1der
Let me guess the 'pedo' word will be used and it'll all be swept under the rug.

Of course, but this is really an attempt to disrupt a network of untraceable forms of communications.

Blogs and forums are used by spies and rogue government entities to send and receive information, including coded messages and data encoded into images and video.

This is only the beginning, but it is doomed to fail, unless they can find a way to either shut down the internet, or eliminate the ability to upload anything, essentially making the internet a one way stream where all content is controlled.

reply to post by GhostR1der


Most likely, thats what they did in Australia right? Then if their legislators didn't vote for it everyone destroys them by saying they support pedophiles. Then "oh by the way we're also censoring everything else, k thanks bye".

Something from the original news source the PTB at ATS should consider if or when the time comes...

• Each of the services host loads of user-generated content.
• Operators at both Blogetery and Ipbfree said they were shut down and aren't coming back.
• Both said they obeyed copyright law.
• In each case, those with knowledge of who ordered the closures or the reasons why said they are legally required not to disclose that information.

"We are limited as to the details we can provide to you," BurstNet wrote to Blogetery's administrator. "Note that this was a critical matter and the only available option to us was to immediately deactivate the server."

User generated content eh?

Welcome to the USSA and the first uses of the Obama Kill Switch -- Engage! First, they ban reporters from the Gulf (censorship), now they are turning off webhosting because they are sick of people spreading the truth about the socialist agendas of the administration (censorship). They are removing content from UTube that shows the "great one" in a negative light (censorship).
So, now we are Communist China? Communist Russia? Nazi Germany? Hussain's Iraq?
Yes, the USA is becoming that which is has fought against around the globe and throughout history.

We are nearing the end of the last few morsels of freedom. "and the people said Amen"

"So this is how liberty dies, with thunderous applause"

An example...

FBI: Spies Hid Secret Messages on Public Websites

Read More www.wired.com...

As information went digital, steganography changed. Messages could be hidden in the 1s and 0s of electronic files — pictures, audio, video, executables, whatever. The hidden communications could even be slowly dribbled into the torrent of IP traffic. Compression schemes — like JPEG for images or MP3 for audio — introduce errors into the files, making a message even easier to hide. New colors or tones can be subtly added or removed, to cover up for the changes. According to the FBI, the image above contains a hidden map of the Burlington, Vermont, airport.

Both before and after Sept. 11, there were rumors in the media that al-Qaida had begun hiding messages in digital porn. That speculation was never confirmed, as far as I can tell.

A post of mine here...

www.abovetopsecret.com...

The more traffic a forum gets the better. ATS would be very attractive to those who would use these tactics to communicate to others without "agencies" having to ability to identify and locate the parties the coded messages are intended for.

This is only the beginning, eventually real changes in the internet will come and will be deemed essential and vital to our national security.

Enjoy this last domain of true freedom while it lasts.

reply to post by Fractured.Facade


yea I thought that was just too convenient. Now the government can just send any tom, dick or Harry to encode some random "spy" message on a website abd shut it down.

Originally posted by dbloch7986
reply to post by Fractured.Facade

 

"con the government send Harry to encode random "spy" message on website."

Too easy.
You will be getting a request to turn your self in to the local FEMA detention center for your own security via registered mail.
Failure to turn yourself in will result your children being detained at their education centers and in SWAT teams being dispatched to your GPS chip location.

[edit on 19-7-2010 by Danbones]

Originally posted by dbloch7986
reply to post by Fractured.Facade

 

yea I thought that was just too convenient. Now the government can just send any tom, dick or Harry to encode some random "spy" message on a website abd shut it down.

Interesting, not something I had considered, but seems possible, If the feds had some motive to shut down a website I suppose they could do the above.

It immensely frustrates intelligence and law enforcement agencies when an investigation leads to "coded" messages posted online and they are unable to identify and locate either the sources of the messages or especially the intended recipients among thousands of users.

Yeah right.

Just because of few malcontents and harmful elements that would inevitably use ANY platforms to do harm, it is a good idea to shut slowly, insidiously and quietly shut the internet, and then turn humanity to watch even censored cartoons or probably only listen to radio.

No ...waits, even harmful elements are known to be capable of hiding secret messages through cartoons.

So, what to do?

A better and perfect idea!

Let's put everyone in jail, fed with 3 hots and a roof, while the rich and powerful rob and con each other of their riches and resources. That way, there will be no more harmful elements, humanity isolated, fed and die off, while the strongest of the rich and powerful survives to be the last man on Earth.,,

WIll someone now please please give me a noble PEACE prize for my original idea to solve mankind's fears and problems?

CNET is now reporting that it was an FBI investigation that led Burst.net to shut down Blogetery :

Bomb-making tips, hit list behind Blogetery closure

The site was shut down after FBI agents informed executives of Burst.net, Blogetery's Web host, late on July 9 that links to al-Qaeda materials were found on Blogetery's servers, according to Joe Marr, chief technology officer for Burst.net.

But Marr said a Burst.net employee erred in telling Blogetery's operator and members of the media that the FBI had ordered it to terminate Blogetery's service. He said Burst.net did that on its own.

[edit on 7/19/2010 by eaglewingz]

Originally posted by SeekerofTruth101
Yeah right.

Just because of few malcontents and harmful elements that would inevitably use ANY platforms to do harm, it is a good idea to shut slowly, insidiously and quietly shut the internet,

Only when immediately necessary, and only for targeted and specific websites.

Longer term solutions will be more radical, and will likely turn the internet into a much more regulated and controlled environment, much like television and radio are now.

No need for jails, you are already enslaved.

reply to post by eaglewingz


A word of advice, take any official news on this with a grain or two of salt.

The real story will never be made public.

Blaming it on Al Qaeda is a bit too convenient no?

And stressing that these were voluntary server shut downs is a bit over the top.

Bey hey, when dealing with a completely apathetic and gullible public, why not?

Heck, they could have blamed this on Sponge Bob, and a network of cartoon terrorists seeking to spread bomb making instructions on the internet.

Ah, save that one for the next time!

This first began in 2008 with Chuck Schumer whom took a personal agenda to shut down Internet providers Usenet services, then after turning a service that comes with internet into a service that costs extra they now go to blogs that facilitate opinions in opposition or may contain secret coded messeges....at this rate they soon will shut the whole thing down, at that point you better have radios and guns cause it will get dicey...it seems there will be no change into a more advanced society, Obama's direction was to take us back to the 1950's....if this passes for normal I expect fundamentalist christianity and islam to then be brought to war agaisnt each other, that feedback will create more destruction of freedom and free speech. I am beginning to think they are trying to destroy anything decentralized....no change has occured but to drive us back to more ignorance and eventually more barbarism.



The real threat to DC and centralized societies...if we realize an energy decentralization distributed energy like the internet the old world of political national systems dies, it ends and those that hold that power lose it.

There are a couple of alternatives to the present Internet. The two linked below are good examples. There is a GNU project that's worth looking into too. The PTB can censor or close the Internet as much as they want but, in the long term, they're pushing surfers into "underground" versions of the Net that are impossible to monitor nevermind police. I dislike censorship and very much believe in free speech but I'd rather be secure in the knowledge that malicious surfers and content providers (e.g. pedos) can be monitored and located. If they are pushed into their own private networks it will be impossible to catch them via their browsing habits.

The Blogetery site that was closed offered a free blog service (ad sponsored) to bloggers much like that provided by Blogger and WordPress.com. Doubtless those latter sites also have their abusers (I'm sure we've all stumbled across something on them that made us vomit).

Blogetery housed 70,000 blogs on a dedicated server provided by Burst.net. That's a lot of content to backup. Usually, a site owner will only backup databases not the associated content given that the host is frequently charged with backing up the content. Can't blame the owner of Blogertery for this unforeseen event.

According to the owner of Blogertery, he has been served DMCA requests in the past which he has dealt with within 24 hours of receipt. It isn't as though he doesn't respond to right holders when served with copyright infringement notices. Burst.net should have suspended just the specific sites that were subject to investigation. They are capable of that. I can see Burst.net losing business and being sued over this.

Those links mentioned earlier are:

freenetproject.org...
osiris.kodeware.net...

[edit on 19/7/10 by Rapacity]

Well they cant do this. They arent following the rule of law themselves. Just wait til there is a huge public outcry and people rally outside our official buildings demanding and answer. Demanding that our freedoms be protected and our laws upheld. Just wait til we elect in all third party candidates in the elections! They will see that the American public takes its Constitution and country seriiously. Just wait until they hear the angry roar of the people shouting "We are mad as hell and we will not take this anymore!"




Or not. I think the finale of American Idol conflicts with protest. Who needs freedom anyway when we have Justin Beiber?

Originally posted by Rapacity
The PTB can censor or close the Internet as much as they want but, in the long term, they're pushing surfers into "underground" versions of the Net that are impossible to monitor nevermind police.

Unless 'they' are the secret originators of the 'underground' net.

Herding the sheep.