U.S. Shuts Down 84,000 Websites By Mistake

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[citation][nom]tleavit[/nom]My guess is that this is a cover up for a real test to see if they can shut down the internet if we decide to go the way of the mideast right now.[/citation]

well... more awkward reasons to shut down the internet later.
for example...

Cyber chatting is against Islam, a Muslim preacher has said:
Read on:
http://story.malaysiasun.com/index.php/ct/9/cid/48cba686fe041718/id/741645/cs/1/

 
Sad... This country is quickly becoming a police state in virtually every way. If only the majority of Americans could see this. I guess that's simply too much to ask, considering how apathetic and "dumb downed" most people in this country are now... It's painfully obvious to me and apparently most people who commented here on Toms so maybe there's still hope.
 
[citation][nom]wribbs[/nom]There is a difference between Communism and Corporatocracy.This is definately some Egyptesq BS. Luckily our is run by our tech-illiterate grandparents so there isn't too much to fear as far as Internet takedowns.[/citation]
HAHAHAHAaa +1 sir ^5 made me laugh because the image of Mr.Burns sitting in janet napolitano's desk asking Smithers " and what does this button do?"
 
[citation][nom]NezzyMighty[/nom]Dear Toms: It’s discouraging to know that Tom’s decided to report the article, shape the idea of the article, and deliver the idea of the article to revolve around an injustice done to legitimate websites. Where is the sense of integrity in news anymore? Why is it that you have to direct your readers into thinking a specific way? Do you think your readers are stupid?All who blogged: If you were a parent, you would see the wrong in the ways you have expressed anger in this news post. You fell into a discussion on politics, and at that, about the government not apologizing or transitioning to communism? Seriously, that's what you got from this article? The US took down child pornographic sites. Sure in the meanwhile, took down others by mistake. So what the mistake took down legitimate sites. So what some damage was done. The damage is not permanent. It will be temporary and easily repaired. In a few weeks/months no one will remember or even care whether the legitimate sites went down. Is the sacrifice of 1 website by mistake for a couple of days more relevant than taking down child pornographic sites? Is the sacrifice of 2 websites too many? Is the sacrifice of 100,000 too many? Come on people, where is your wisdom? Where are your morals? The protection of the children is more important than some website. What if the government didn’t care, and it was your child?US Government (+1). Thank you for taking down the child pornography, and protecting our children, which is paramount. Job well done.[/citation]
i agree with nezzy's first paragraph, but i don't agree with the rest.
in greater thought i am wondering how many charity sites were shut down, say like ones who help the homeless and feed children and online donations make up a huge part of their funding?
i don't think there were any affected by this, but stillthe damage has been done that such a charity doesn't actually help those people but takes advantage of them in the minds of all who visited it that day.
how many people go back to a website after seeing something like that involved with a child pornography sting?
i hope you are reading this neezy and realize just SOME of the ramifications of the amount of money, reputations, and business lost to this minor error.
my only wish is that some of the websites hosted that were shut down belonged to every company that just got bailed out!
 
[citation][nom]cptnjarhead[/nom]@ NezzyMightyAhh, sooo the good of the many out way the good of the few?Many bad things have occurred in history by governments doing "what is best for the people"By the way i have two kids.One is in the army and the other is in high school."So what the mistake took down legitimate sites. So what some damage was done."Keep telling yourself that and when it happens to you, just remember that it was for the greater good.[/citation]

Well, a lot of good that YOUR 'greater good' does me.... My website is not even in the U.S. of fucking A., merely hosted there. So now I have 4+ days of outage, with some legalistic banner calling me some kind of child pornographer. I lost 4+ days of business that will never happen again, and who knows how many customers that won't be back out of fear or disgust. So who is going to reimburse me for my losses? The U.S. of fucking A.?
 
[citation][nom]youssef 2010[/nom]seems like all the world governments are too stuck up to admit their mistakes[/citation]

Nope. Ours Isn't, and trust me when i say that they make ALOT of mistakes. I mean our Government Pretty much committed mutiny on itself and it was on the morning news the next day.
 
[citation][nom]NeBuN[/nom]try communist, lol....we fight to free other countries yet our own is falling deeper and deeper in the grasp of modern day communism[/citation]
ya... sorry, you're an idiot.
 
An accused child pornographer is just like a child molester.
Good luck convincing people who'll never talk to you again of your innocence.

83,990 sites now known to avoid for rumored illegal activity, but hey, they got 10 in the process. Now to start arresting on the same basis, one in 8000 arrested actually having done something isn't too much if it catches criminals, is it?
 
This is like being mistaken for a criminal and being briefly arrested before things get cleared up. I love these morons who post about the US being a police state on every story like this. Seriously, go outside. Walk around, shop, work, worship, think, state your opinions, argue, play, vote, run for office, raise a family. Life is good. Can you find the police state?

Every police state needs a HUGE police force with centralized control and more loyalty to the current regime than to the people. In real police states like Iran and Egypt, the entire internal security apparatus has thrown in its lot with the ruling clique. Why? Because life sucks in those countries. If the strong band against the weak, they get a bigger share of the spoils and life will suck a little less. America has all of these traditions of open government and free society, but the biggest barrier to a police state here is that there's no economic incentive to join the FBI en masse and start oppressing your neighbors. Everyone knows that would make their life worse rather than better.

So yes, the police apparatus here will enforce CP laws, it will enforce traffic laws, it will enforce drug laws. It WILL NOT stand behind Obama or Bush if he declares himself president for life tomorrow.

 
I have to laugh at these responses! Why don't we all just drop our pants and show our personal political party affiliation tattoos and forget all the B.S. in between?!
YES Big Brother is gradually desensitizing the masses so that we blindly bend over while our rights are slowly siphoned away.
YES government sponsored national healthcare is ANOTHER example of that fact.
YES Iraq was a mistake of epic proportion.
YES our current President needs to put away the teleprompter and pretty speeches and start incentivizing small businesses to grow, instead of borrowing billions of dollars for pet projects and earmarks.

But let's be honest people, does any of that REALLY have anything to do with this article? The "good guys" were trying to take down the "bad guys" and, as is sadly so often the case, innocent by-standards were unjustly impacted. I think the fact that we're all tech-savvy (if not "tech-interested" folk (see we DO have SOMEthing in common) has this group specifically riled because we are impassioned about the internet and the freedoms associated with it. BUT let me ask you, honestly, if the feds sent in a special forces unit lead by the likes of Jack Bauer to take down a ring of child traffickers in downtown Los Angeles and they, in the process of succeeding in their mission, accidentally took out some transformers and knocked power offline to 100 city blocks for a couple of days, would you still feel as "infringed upon"? I ask because that's the question I asked myself and, I have to say, I wouldn't feel nearly as put out in that scenario. Accidents happen. At least they weren't intentionally trying to sensor legitimate business. Possessing the technology to take out a website is not a violation of anyone's rights. Defending our cyber space is as important as defending our city streets, no?

 
[citation][nom]mchuf[/nom]People should never support "The ends justify the means." mentality when it comes to the government. Too many opportunities for mis-use. Just like here.[/citation]
What harm could support like that induce? I mean, Germany did it in World War 2, and look where it got them.
 
Interesting arguments, but everyone seems to be elevating this problem into a philosophical debate. It just isn't that serious. There's also a bit of conspiracy theory going on as well as mild paranoia. None of these are intelligent assessments of the problem at hand.
 
[citation][nom]Nexus52085[/nom]Interesting arguments, but everyone seems to be elevating this problem into a philosophical debate. It just isn't that serious. There's also a bit of conspiracy theory going on as well as mild paranoia. None of these are intelligent assessments of the problem at hand.[/citation]

I, for one, have made this purely an economic issue. I have lost 4+ days of business due to this stuff-up. Who knows how much future business that I have lost due to that obscene banner branding me and my website as paedophiles? No apologies, no retractions, and even if there were, Joe Bloggs would never probably see them. All Joe knows is that the U.S. of A. thinks that I am a paedophile, or that my website traffics in child porn materials. What do I do now? Change the name of my website, and lose my existing customers? Well? What does the high and mighty Nexus52085 think that I should do about this 'not so serious' problem? Well? Hmmm??? Patiently waiting....
 
"For its part, the DHS has apparently neglected to acknowledge the blunder."

Of course, the government never makes mistakes. They are always right. 2+2=5 everyone knows that.
 
[citation][nom]croc[/nom]I, for one, have made this purely an economic issue. I have lost 4+ days of business due to this stuff-up. Who knows how much future business that I have lost due to that obscene banner branding me and my website as paedophiles? No apologies, no retractions, and even if there were, Joe Bloggs would never probably see them. All Joe knows is that the U.S. of A. thinks that I am a paedophile, or that my website traffics in child porn materials. What do I do now? Change the name of my website, and lose my existing customers? Well? What does the high and mighty Nexus52085 think that I should do about this 'not so serious' problem? Well? Hmmm??? Patiently waiting....[/citation]
I'm sorry you were affected by this. You have a legitimate reason to be upset, and by law, you should be able to get compensation from the government for potential losses. I was not trying to say that it isn't a serious issue, I was saying that it's not so serious as to jump to these ridiculous "the world is going to end and US is doomed" sort of thing.
 
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