US internet provider AT&T blocked freewheeling website
4chan.org this weekend, leading to accusations of censorship, but the reason for
the action turned out to be a routine security
measure.
The web forums at 4chan are full of explicit
images, and the site has been cited as the source of several internet pranks.
Internet users speculated on Twitter and in other forums that AT&T, the
country's largest internet service provider, was overstepping its rights by
blocking the site.
The phone company blocked access to
4chan on Friday to protect broadband customers from a "denial of service"
attack, which floods targets with meaningless traffic, AT&T spokesman
Michael Coe said Monday.
On Sunday, AT&T concluded
that the attack was over and restored access.
A posting on
4chan's blog on Monday, signed by founder Christopher Poole, said 4chan has been
a target of a denial of service attack for weeks. To defend itself, it took
measures that resulted in a backwash of traffic hitting other internet users,
including some AT&T customers. The posting said AT&T acted
unnecessarily broadly in blocking access to the site for all
customers.
"In the end, this wasn't a sinister act of
censorship, but rather a bit of a mistake and a poorly executed,
disproportionate response on AT&T's part," Poole
said.
AP