FBI shuts down 20 antiwar web sites

[tomfodw]

Anyone hear anything of this on mainstream news outlets?

World Socialist Web Site www.wsws.org

FBI shuts down 20 antiwar web sites: an unprecedented act of Internet censorship

The US government move to shut down nearly two dozen antiwar, anti-globalization web sites on October 7 is an unprecedented exercise of police power against political dissent on the Internet. The World Socialist Web Site denounces the attack on the Indymedia sites and demands a halt to all such attempts at suppressing political criticism of the US government.

The shutdown was carried out by Rackspace, a US-based web-hosting company with offices in San Antonio, Texas, and greater London, in response to an order from the FBI requiring it to turn over two of its British servers that were hosting dozens of Indymedia sites. There are conflicting accounts of the legal process, with Indymedia attributing the order to a US federal district court, while the Electronic Freedom Foundation, which is supplying legal representation to the group, describes it as a “commissioner’s order” directly from the FBI itself.

At least 20 national web sites, including those for Brazil, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Uruguay were taken down when the hard drives for the servers were given to the FBI. Most of the sites were restored to service by the end of the weekend, but they may have lost significant digital content because of the removal of the hardware.

The seizure appeared to be politically timed. It came just one week before the start of the third session of the European Social Forum (ESF), a large gathering of antiwar and anti-globalization activists, scheduled to take place in London October 15-17. The ESF was to be broadcast live via streaming video on many of the Indymedia sites.

:::snip:::

[bluestateguy]

1. What if a Democratic Administration shut down townhall.com?

We wouldn't be able to hear because of all the whining from the Right, but maybe that's what needs to happen to show them that the Patriot Act is wrong.

[kayell]

2. Its part of the October Plan

read my sig, check the link

[henslee]

3. So do we get to know what 20 sites were shut down?

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. dupe

of http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=890521

Yes, it did get onto some sites: The Guardian
BBC
Washington Times! (Their libertarian tendency showing through?)

but not much American media.

[gandalf]

5. This was reported by BBC on Monday

and discussed here.

Apparently it was only reported by British media?

[sendero]

6. come on folks...

.... read carefully. The host of these sites decided to pull the plug to avoid the hassle or potential hassle.

Object lesson? If you are going to own such a site, host it yourself.