U.S. Anti-Child Pornography Operation Accidentally Shuts Down 84,000 Sites

In an effort to crack down on child pornography, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the seizure of 10 domains as a part of a new initiative called "Operation Protect Our Children" but they also shut down 84,000 seemingly innocent sites in the process.

"For all its positive impact, the Internet has also unfortunately created a new way for child predators to commit their inexcusable crimes," said Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the DOJ in a statement. "The production and distribution of child pornography wreak havoc on innocent lives. With these domain seizures, we are taking our fight against child pornography to websites that facilitate the exchange of these abusive images."

The press release did not contain the names of the ten domains that were seized. However, the domain mooo.com, a part of the DNS provider FreeDNS was shut down in the process, with sites using the domain to host their pages displaying a banner reading as follows:

“Advertisement, distribution, transportation, receipt, and possession of child pornography constitute federal crimes that carry penalties for first time offenders of up to 30 years in federal prison, a $250,000 fine, forfeiture and restitution."

84,000 subdomains under mooo.com were shut down, with many of the hosts blogging their surprise and dismay. Though the seizure was reverted a day and a half afterwards, it took another three days for the banners to disappear completely.

"Last night on Friday February 11th at around 9:30 PM PST mooo.com (the most popular shared domain at afraid.org) was suspended at the registrar level," the official FreeDNS statement statement read. "freedns.afraid.org has never allowed this type of abuse of its DNS service."

The DOJ and DHS have not yet made a statement about these claims, and it is unclear what exactly happened to cause them to shut the entire domain down at this time.

Comments

[aikani]

09:57 AM on 03/22/2011

child pornography is the excuse, supporting business by ending file sharing is the goal

[MikeyJaii]

01:51 PM on 02/20/2011

ChannelSurfing.net has been shut down :'(

[Marcus01]

10:34 PM on 02/19/2011

Thank god these courageous agents are protecting our borders from child porn. I feel so much safer now.

[juliedc]

01:44 PM on 02/19/2011

Why does the Dept. of Homeland Security have any involvement in this whatsoever? Aren't they in charge of outside threats? There they go, expanding their role. This really p*sses me off.

[cabrobst]

04:40 PM on 02/18/2011

The Fourth Amendment (Amendment IV) to the United States Constitution is the part of the Bill of Rights which guards against unreasonable searches and seizures, along with requiring any warrant to be judicially sanctioned and supported by probable cause.
How does this seizure of innocent properties not violate the United States Constitution?

[DRaymond]

05:27 PM on 02/18/2011

Actually I beleive that there were court orders that did authorize the seizing of the sites.  The problem is that they tried to do it at the registry level.  Unfotunately there is no registry setting for (childporn).mooo.com, only for mooo.com.  Unfortunately the overzealous prosecutors, and judge, failed to understand the nature of this particular site.
 
I can nly imagine what it must feel like to have some little personal blog space being visited by your parents, children, friends, etc. and then have it suddenly be switched by a warning from the federal government not only accusing you of being a child pornographer but warning them of the criminal charges that they might get for having visited a site likt this!  Talk about mortifying!
 
http://betweenthenumbers.net/2011/02/feds-falsely-accuses-84000-sites-of-being-child-pornographers/

[GabrielWithoutWings]

04:34 AM on 02/20/2011

I wonder if they'd have a case for... I can't remember which is print. Slander or libel?

[tooncesrocks]

12:27 PM on 02/18/2011

They really must be clueless as to how the internet works...

[onionboy]

12:50 PM on 02/18/2011

They shoved rags in the tubes to prevent flow of data.

[jsgaetano]

12:20 PM on 02/18/2011

This is the kind of mistakes that happen when we allow law enforcement to circumvent rule of law.
 
Courts should be making judgements, not law enforcement.

[tooncesrocks]

12:27 PM on 02/18/2011

you said it best

[jsgaetano]

12:18 PM on 02/18/2011

Just take a page out of the conservative's book-
 
"Mistakes Were Made", but "Lessons Were Learned".

[nevernot]

12:46 PM on 02/18/2011

Just not by us... You forgot the last statement.

[CapeJack]

01:23 PM on 02/18/2011

Right. It's still Bush's fault.

[jsgaetano]

02:29 PM on 02/18/2011

Inasmuch as it's the fault of the failed and fraud-based ideology of "Fiscal Conservatives", and George Dubai Bush is a conservative.

[stk33]

10:18 AM on 02/18/2011

I wonder, does the government really have the authority to destroy property, business, etc, without filing and winning a lawsuit?

I also wonder if anybody can name one single deed, act, anything, that US government has done in the last decade and that was positive for the citizens, rather than misappropriation of tax money in better case, or upfront assault in most. I think, saying that this (as well as the previous) government is an enemy at war with the population wouldn't be an overstatement.

[CapeJack]

01:33 PM on 02/18/2011

Haven't you heard? According to Democrat Congressman, Pete Stark the government can do "most anything it wants".

http://americaswatchtower.com/2010/08/02/pete-stark-claims-the-federal-government-can-do-almost-anything-it-wants-to/

[Roci]

02:48 AM on 02/18/2011

The road to hell is paved with nothing but good intentions.

[jsgaetano]

12:18 PM on 02/18/2011

Nothing?  So only good intentions lead to hell?

[MFlaminio23OSU]

12:01 AM on 02/18/2011

Good thing we allowed such things as the Homeland Security Act and the Patriot Act. We need to stop allowing the government to steal our freedoms. I by no means support child pornography but I do not believe this was the Department of Homeland Security true focus.

[cibersatan]

09:58 AM on 03/21/2011

The right has a selective memory....I have yet to hear Michele Bachmann rail against DHS, considering it was the largest expansion of federal government in 50 years

[Unapologetic1]

11:36 PM on 02/17/2011

"Accident"..... yeah Right.

[CapeJack]

01:36 PM on 02/18/2011

As Geraldine would say: "The devil made me do it." (Flip Wilson)

[Roy Robson]

04:38 PM on 02/20/2011

Test run...

[RBN]

07:50 PM on 02/17/2011

This hurts the poor people who got caught in the net more than the actual child pornographers.

[Mr Bad Example]

05:24 PM on 02/17/2011

This is more than just shoddy police work. Besides the complete lack of due process in seizing these domain names, deeper investigation of other "domain seizures" by the government reveal that they use FALSE legal reasoning, in large part justified by agents with minimal legal training. When questioned about their failures, government officials have denied their own statements and actions, then clammed up, saying only "We're satisfied with the results." In the meantime, perfectly legal site operators have been labelled child pornographers, copyright pirates (despite the fact the music they linked to was in large part provided by the same recording companies complaining about the links), and in the next round of seizures to be announced ( if the normal pattern holds true)-potential terrorists. All of this, without anyone ever being given the chance to defend themselves or challenge their accusers.

In becoming the complete lackeys of big businesses which refuse to acknowledge that they've failed or are unwilling to adapt to changes in society, our government now smilingly performs acts that only a generation ago, when practiced by the Soviet KGB, were the cause of the cold war...first, it was Barry Bonds and baseball players, prosecuted for lying to the government when it turned out what they were doing wasn't illegal (at the time), then "pirates", then "child pornographers"...after the terrorists, how long will it be before they come for the few of us that are left?

[DRaymond]

04:49 PM on 02/17/2011

This all sounds like a bad scene from a cop show where the go-getter 'cowboy' partner kicks in the door of the gang leader only to find an innocent old cat lady.
 
http://betweenthenumbers.net/2011/02/feds-falsely-accuses-84000-sites-of-being-child-pornographers/

[cabrobst]

04:44 PM on 02/18/2011

Yet in real life little old ladies actually have had their doors kicked in and been summarily shot by over anxious police officers.