Net Neutrality has often been feared here in America, with out current view on China’s Great Firewall, we have all the reason to be afraid. Because blocking sites can be done in a heartbeat. And of course, AT&T decided it wanted to be first in the game stateside, only they picked the wrong site to block.
I’ll admit, I love 4chan, I’m on it every evening at home, for some good laughs of course. And because I like to stay fresh on the latest memes, instead of watching mega corporations drown them with lame attemps to be equally as viral. But the one thing I’ve learned in my years of channing, is that you don’t mess with 4chan. Composed of everything from hackers to gamers, the message board site is infamous for DDOS attacks, among other things, on all those that cross it. Being a fellow /b/tard, I started seeing the messages pop up that AT&T users couldn’t connect to image heavy forums. As the night went on it became apparent that AT&T was blocking the site, and essentially kicking the internets hornet nest around like a football. And it began to buzz back.
Throughout the night, plans of everything ranging from site attacks to sending out iReports that the CEO died of a cocaine overdose started to appear all over the web. The message was clear, keep the internet free, or else. AT&T’s statement to the media was that it was simply protecting it’s users. But even though it may have seemed innocent, it was the first true spark of net neutrality war in America. And that’s when Anonymous stepped in. Holding a call to arms against the company to do anything to take them down and stop this.
Less than 24 hours later, AT&T has lifted the block, in a swift ceasefire. I guess we’ll see what happens from here, but remember, just as I mentioned in my #iranelection POV, you really need to make sure you’re on the right side of the fight, because the public will be there, heavily armed and waiting to lash out.
