70,000 Blogs Shut Down After FBI Finds Terrorist Materials, Blogs May Come Back

Update 2: CNET’s Greg Sandoval now reports that users could see their blogs again, but Blogetery likely won’t be hosted by Burst.net in the future.

Burst.net CTO says that the service has not resopnded quickly enough to abuse claims in the past, which appears to be the reason the whole service was shut down in the first place. More on the story here.

Update: CNET now reports that the FBI sent Burst.net (which hosted the Blogetery service) a Voluntary Emergency Disclosure of Information request, but never requested Burst’s server (the shutting down of which resulted in the termination of Blogetery).

The FBI, apparently found Al-Qaeda-related bomb-making instructions and a "hit list" on Blogetery. It’s still not clear why the entire service needed to be shut down, and why Burst decided to go that extra mile, even without instruction to do so from the FBI. Whether or not the Ipbfree incident is related is still unknown. More facts will no doubt be made more clear in time. A big hat tip goes to CNET’s Greg Sandoval.

Original Article: Something strange is going on. As CNET’s Greg Sandoval reports, Blogetery.com and Ipbfree.com, blog/forum platforms that hosted massive amounts of user-generated content, have been shut down by unnamed law enforcement agencies for unnamed reasons. Blogetery is said to have hosted over 70,000 blogs.

It is unclear if the two terminations are connected, but it would be a pretty big coincidence if they were not. As Sandoval says, both services have said they are not coming back, both claim to have obeyed copyright law, and both are saying they are legally required not to disclose any information.

Why are these blogs being shut down? A message at Blogetery’s site reads:

After being BurstNet customer for 7 months our server was terminated without any notification or explanation.

We’re trying to resolve the situation.

So, simply put, lots of user-generated content has been eliminated with no explanation of why, and no government agency has stepped up to at least say it was them who made the order. Naturally, this can only lead to speculation and rumor until someone is able to go on record and take responsibility. That speculation will only escalate until that happens, and it is already starting throughout the Blogosphere.

Sandoval quotes an official from an ironically unnamed government agency, who says that he doesn’t know of any government agencies that have the authority to terminate such services without going through the "legal hoops". (HT: Curt Hopkins)

Any takers?

There are 13 Comments. Add Yours.

Hummmm
July 19, 2010 at 1:51 pm

Socialism at its best. It is happening slowly but surely and there are lots of Americans that could have told you that as of November 2008 Socialism will be taking over our country. Government control over anything they wish! Good Day
BoobiesNBabies
July 19, 2010 at 2:30 pm

Why the heck would socialism cause servers to be shut down?…that sounds like totalitarianism…Our white supremacist capitalist patriarchy and the matrix of domination has reared its ugly head…. ;P
Johnny
July 19, 2010 at 3:21 pm

Obama did this…..he’s a socialist, right?

Just kidding.
Guest
July 19, 2010 at 5:10 pm

Give it time some agency will take credit for killing the blogs
Adsense Publisher
July 19, 2010 at 7:50 pm

Well, the way I see it, it was a good call to shut down the site, at least until the site can be copied so the FBI can examine it and all the content related to the incident be removed from the site. This is a matter of national security as I see it and I’m sure so did the FBI.
- Ehran
  July 20, 2010 at 1:38 pm
  
  there are literally thousands of sites offering advice on building bombs. there is an internet discussion group specifically about explosives and the creative or amusing uses of same. participants range from enthused amateurs to guys who blow stuff up for a living to chemical engineers who design explosives. all eager to profer advice about your technical problems if you are a bit careful about wording said problems.
  
  visit some rpg forums and you’ll find all sorts of helpful advice to polish up your scenario for villainy.
  
  heck for that matter if really low on skills you can find a book in the children’s section of every library in the english speaking world that gives working recipes for nitroglycerin, gun cotton, mercury fulminate and dynamite. no chem store visit needed just a trip to the mall to get the raw materials.
  
  given the amount of data out there that even a stumblebum can readily access wouldn’t it be more useful to leave the stuff up and monitor who is reading it?
  - Adsense Publisher
    July 22, 2010 at 2:59 pm
    
    Let’s say for example you were looking at a cooking recipe blog and came across a comment by an anonymous visitor that told everybody how to make Nitroglycerin with nothing more than what you might typically have in the kitchen. Would you want the FBI putting you on a list of suspected bomb makers because you accidentally came across the page? I’d rather they find out who posted it, and find out exactly what their intentions were by posting such information on a cooking blog (or whatever blog it was).
    
    I know if the FBI told me I had bomb making information on my site that I would want to remove such content and allow the FBI a copy of everything (including our log files) so that they can find out who posted the information on our site.
    
    You have to already assume the FBI is watching who’s looking at bomb making sites, and who’s checking out bomb making books from the local library.
Daz
July 19, 2010 at 8:15 pm

A Think Johnny Is Right …….. Its All Obamas Been Doing Is Passing LAWS To Turn The Internet Social Media Off And Giving Business S### …….. Its No Good Having All These New Powers If Not Tested

Wall Street Know Al About Obamas Internet Kill Switch Wall Street And Usa Online Business Are Not Happy Wheres Free Trade Defo Not US As Now Thay Can Renage On Trades ” Whats ” The Point Of Wall Street ? Anymore ! Can’t Keep Internet User Out Of The Loop

Think Thats Why China Shoping 4 Euros. Must No Usa Av A Loon And Not Right Runing Country
And A Think It Was The Wall Street Economy Bloggers Thay Turned Off White House Was Crying Last Week Say ” STOP IT ”

But On The Plus Side Obama Might Be Able To Turn Internet Off But He Will Never Stop Being A Dick

Stick To What You No OBAR ME Looking At Girls Asses And NOTHING About Jobs And Economy Or And The Iternet You FOOL ………………. O Ye And You Want ME To Tell Your Wife About Condesending Rice
Guest
July 20, 2010 at 7:19 am

Socialism? Please get an undergraduate degree from an actual university before you start tossing around words you heard on TV but clearly don’t understand. And please turn off the Fox News and right-wing radio once in a while.
- Ehran
  July 20, 2010 at 1:30 pm
  
  americans or the avg american have vilified the word socialism without having more than a foggy notion what it is. as i like to tell them it’s not whether you are a socialist or not it’s how much of a socialist are you. they’ll instantly deny any trace of socialism in their being and then you ask them if they think cops are a good thing, 5 day work weeks good too? how bout fire departments or food inspectors or public highways? the look on their face when i tell them they aren’t just socialists at heart but flaming socialists is pretty priceless.
  
  i can almost always get an american to agree that country a (cuba) has every right to bomb an unnamed city (miami) in country b after explaining what actually happened between the two countries. the desperate attempts to backpedal are even funnier than the attempts to back away from being a flaming socialist.
TheTruth
July 20, 2010 at 1:00 pm

Actually the president is in the process of (or by this time if the bill passed) has been given powers to be able to shut down sites and the entire internet in the u.s. if he deems it necessary to national security. This is to be able to stop the flow of information and coordination of supposed terrorists.
Just wait, it’s gonna get alot worse. There is a city in china who is working with an American company testing id cards. The cards have all your information on them. Medical history, religion, id number. You can’t buy or sell without it. They are looking to expand it if the tests go well.
Guest
July 21, 2010 at 3:33 am

Good for the FBI. There’s enough brainwashed low IQ idiots running around already so we don’t need “Al-Qaeda-related bomb-making instructions and a “hit list” floating around too.

Hey Hummmmm,

If you’re going to call everything “Socialism” maybe you should look up what they mean first. lol
Guest
August 10, 2010 at 4:45 pm

This sort of action will do no good The clever ones will set up on servers & sites outside of usa jurisdiction & put up even more radical material. better to let “them” continue and watch carefully.
keep your friends close & your enemies closer….