AT&T blocks anime site

America's Toilets & Testes already violated the Fourth Amendment when it conspired with the Bush regime in the illegal wiretap scandal. Now it proves it has no respect for the First Amendment either.

A few days ago, AT&T began blocking Internet subscribers' access to 4chan.

4chan is largely an anime site, but it has other content too - much of which is considered juvenile and tasteless. However, 4chan does not allow illegal material such as child porn.

The only reasonable conclusion is that AT&T blocks 4chan solely because they don't like the site. AT&T does not block hate sites like Free Republic that encourage illegal acts. So clearly, AT&T can't credibly claim it's blocking 4chan because of illegal activity (especially because 4chan disallows illegal content).

AT&T also has no credibility if it claims it's blocking 4chan because of a denial-of-service attack - because other sites have such attacks all the time, yet they are not blocked.

AT&T's blockage of 4chan is illegal, under the FCC's 'Net neutrality regulations. But it's to be expected: When the government gave legal immunity to AT&T for its spying, AT&T knew it could violate any laws it pleased.

Internet providers blocking sites in the U.S. isn't new, but it's generally been more small-scale and sporadic until now. It turns out though that AT&T has been illegally blocking an entire port for ages.

This is reminiscent of a short-lived policy by a European Union-backed censorship group that barred Internet users in Britain from editing any Wikipedia page. AT&T's policy of blocking 4chan is probably just as significant.

Apparently, AT&T later lifted its total block of 4chan - but it reportedly still blocks 4chan's picture section.

Should we be surprised that AT&T is the company that starts America's large-scale website blockage war? No. This is the same AT&T that signed me up for phone services I didn't order and tried charging me for them. It's also the same AT&T that gives more to Republican candidates than almost any other corporation.

AT&T controls about 15% of America's Internet provider biz. Most customers can't switch to a different provider, because AT&T now has a monopoly in many of these places - which was given to them by local governments.

The FCC needs to come down hard on AT&T.

(Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/07/27/att_censorship_block;
http://stormen.wordpress.com/2009/07/27/att-blocks-4chan)