Homeland Security Accidentally Shuts Down 84,000 Websites, Accuses Owners Of Distributing Kiddie Porn

Rob Port • February 16, 2011

And didn’t just shut them down, but put up this scary banner that visitors to the websites saw saying that they’d been shut down for distributing child pornography:

So much for due process. The details:

Last Friday, ICE’s Cyber Crimes Center proudly seized various domain names as part of “Operation Save Our Children,” claiming the domains were involved with the distribution of child pornography. ICE managed to get a District Court judge sign a seizure warrant, then had the offending sites’ doman registries make said offending sites point to the scary banner shown above. However, for whatever reason, a mistake was made and the domain, mooo.com, of a large DNS service provider, FreeDNS, was seized, causing around 84,000 innocent subdomains to be seized as well.

Most of the 84,000 sites that were seized were personal websites, or sites of small businesses, which were obviously not particularly happy when search engine results showed that these sites were distributing child pornography. It took until Sunday for the domain seizures to be fixed, and took up to another three days for any of the wrongfully-seized sites to stop pointing toward the incriminating banner. Essentially, some unlucky folks and small businesses were wrongfully accused of distributing child pornography for six days, quite probably incorrectly damaging their reputations in the process.

The only word from the Department of Homeland Security about these seizures is this press release which doesn’t mention the 84,000 websites that were wrongfully accused of distributing pornography or offer any apology. Rather, it focuses on the 10 websites that were actually guilty of doing something wrong.

The internet is a critical part of the business world these days, and what is put on the internet can have a heavy impact on a person’s reputation. The DHS has no doubt destroyed, or at least harmed, the reputation of thousands of businesses and individuals.

And I have to ask…where is the due process? Shouldn’t the businesses or individuals in question get their day in court before the government seizes their websites?

Tags: Asshats, big government, department of homeland security, internet

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1571258569 Marty McKeever

Probably a typo.
Jamermorrow

Homeland security another department created by big government conservatives.

http://flamemeister.com flamemeister

A lot can be explained by: As Hoover was to FDR, Bush was to Obama.

jgmann38

Sounds like a lawsuit to me!!

http://Sayanythingblog.com The Whistler

I agree, but the people who should be paying are the employees of the Department of Homeland Security who trampled over these peoples rights and property.

They wouldn’t screw up if they were held responsible.

Jett

This is a test of Big Brother’s Emergency Seizure Program and Marshall Law.

http://sparkiearbuckle.sayanythingblog.com/ Sparkie Arbuckle

Nope, it’s private security contractors dicking around doing illegal things in the name of the government because we ought to ‘privatize’ all of it.
http://sayanythingblog.com Rob

I think you meant Martial Law

2hotel9

Will this proliferate into a series of wrongful prosecutions of people? Proven fact that once this sort of “mistake” occurs in government agencies and bureaus it continues on for quite some time, and the innocent citizens will have to pay vast amounts of money to fight these erroneous charges. When accused by the government you are guilty until convicted, no matter how innocent you are. Especially if your obvious innocence publicly embarrasses a Federal Prosecutor.
http://sparkiearbuckle.sayanythingblog.com/ Sparkie Arbuckle

WHat security firm was this contracted to? Are their contracts pulled?

Jamermorrow

Government contracts create monopolies and inefficiency. It would not matter if they pulled the contract and gave it to somebody else. You would have the same problem. Politics is also involved in who gets the contract. Its not based on quality or price.

http://sparkiearbuckle.sayanythingblog.com/ Sparkie Arbuckle

I know. Cons are the worst. They love to give reach-arounds to all those wasteful defense contractors who sell us duct tape for $50 a roll.

SigFan

Um, not that I condone kiddie porn, but what does Homeland Security have to do with kiddie porn? Is the country in danger from a bunch of perverted monkey spankers? Go track down terrorists like you’re supposed to and leave the perverts for the branches of law enforcement that are supposed to take care of those things.

http://www.realityburst.com Eugene Farber

This is a brilliant point. Yes, kiddie porn is wrong…but this way oversteps the bounds.

I myself own a few websites and in the process of a couple of internet start-ups…I can only imagine how I would react if this happened to me.
http://sparkiearbuckle.sayanythingblog.com/ Sparkie Arbuckle

I think it’s the whole thing about raping little children that get’s us worked up. Also, I presume that the demand for this sh#t down in the bible belt is met by kiddie rapists and their websites in various Asian and former Russian states, among others. So, I suspect it might concern DHLS. Talk to Bush. He created the ‘beast’ as part of his small government platform.

Then cry me a river and get ready to advocate for more sh#t you don’t really want but some Con has given a name that you like.

2hotel9

Pretty funny, spark, your Muslim Terrorist heroes routinely rape, sodomize, and murder little children and you say we can’t judge them. And now you are defending DHS shutting down the websites of thousands innocent people because a moron working for the government just wants to. Why didn’t DHS turn this over to the FBI, whose job it is to catch people making and distributing child porn, and DHS concentrate on finding and killing terrorists, which is the only job they are specifically tasked with doing, you stupid c*nt.

http://flamemeister.com flamemeister

A book was published some 45 years ago on Muslim sexual practices. I wish I could remember the title. The practices described went well beyond anything I have seen in the press or on the internet.

CDMA

Sparkie,

You defend those who rape children and distribute pictures of it? And then you blame Bush for stopping it? Good liberal! I bet you are a member of MAMBLA along with Hater, ellinas1 and the rest of freedom haters.

Part of Homeland Security is responsible for ensuring that commerce entering the US is legal, that is why they don’t allow this stuff in. Or do you think kiddie porn should be legal?

http://sparkiearbuckle.sayanythingblog.com/ Sparkie Arbuckle

Perhaps you should read the comment I was responding to and try again with a little context.

http://flamemeister.com flamemeister

An emergency response was required to complaints from government employees re the porn-site shut-downs.

2hotel9

Yea, can’t have TSA and Congress Members from their porn! That would be a violation of their union contracts.

JustRuss

if it crosses state lines, which if its internet most likely does, then it should be FBI, not ICE? WTF?

http://www.realityburst.com Eugene Farber

Why does the government even have the power to shut down personal websites? Yes, kiddie porn is wrong. But what’s stopping them from shutting down sites like this one that speak out about their wrong doing?

http://Sayanythingblog.com The Whistler

Um, their better nature?

We’re screwed.

Jimmypop

quick question; logistically, how does this happen so fast and to such an extent?

that, more than anything, should scare us.

2hotel9

Especially since the SC has already told them they do not have the authority to shutdown websites without full and publicly open due process.

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Homeland Security Accidentally Shuts Down 84,000 Websites, Accuses Owners Of Distributing Kiddie Porn

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