News link on Reddit.

(UPDATE: Another report is in, suggesting that this block is not in response to content but in response to attacks being launched. Time will tell who is right; there have been confirmations that AT&T is blocking /b/, but no specifics as to why.

UPDATE 2: AT&T has issued a statement that seems to confirm this. So Code Green after all, which is good to hear, although they could have resolved this matter a lot earlier if they had gone out and explained why a bit earlier.

p.s. I like how Sankaku gets to pretend it was right all along. Enjoy looking down on the rest of us.)

Well, it’s pretty much as it says. I haven’t seen any posts around the otakusphere yet regarding this (although Twitter is alight) so I figure I’ll bring it up; I didn’t know myself for quite a while, but I think it’s something that’s noteworthy.

Here’s what’s been reported so far, which is probably as close to straight facts as you will get (my opinion follows afterward), if you can’t confirm yourself (i.e. you don’t use AT&T):

  • Most users who use AT&T for internet access cannot access /b/ and /r9k/. Other 4chan boards are still accessible.
  • The block is caused by AT&T dropping the packets within its own network, making it seem like the website is simply inaccessible.

This should be a very familiar and a very important issue to anime fans as well; no matter your opinion on /b/ or 4chan, we’ve been through this mess with Equality Now and the eroge IP bannings – or more correctly, we’re still going through that mess – and this move by AT&T isn’t much different, except for the fact that they’re actually taking action. And in blunt form, too.

I’m a proponent of free speech, so of course such a thing is alarming to me – especially if you consider a slippery slope argument (ye olde ‘first they came for /b/, but I didn’t speak up…’), the validity of which, I cannot say … but I don’t think this kind of action is right.

The simplest way to put it is, it doesn’t matter what kind of content /b/ has, whether I support it or don’t support it, whether I like it or don’t like it, it’s still my choice whether I want to expose myself to it or not.

Which is why something like this is, to understate it, an issue. Shouldn’t you stand up for your rights too?

Of course, the argument becomes tricky as it can easily be countered that /b/ is perhaps a shady place to be (on a good day), especially when it falls into legal territory; but at the least, the way in which AT&T is enforcing this block (making it look like it is merely a connection problem) seems to be equally shady tactics; as one commenter said, if AT&T had redirected to some sort of  ‘this site is blocked’ page, it would be news in every paper and TV show.

Instead, AT&T is just trying to slide the issue past the public. We should show them that we aren’t that blind.

Encyclopedia Dramatica provides some contact info for you to voice your opinion to:
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-CCY