Intellectual Property Law

Blog Platform Shut Down as FBI Probes al-Qaida Posts

By David Kravets

Blogging platform Blogetery.com was cut off by its hosting company last week after the authorities said al-Qaida “terrorist material” was found on one of its servers, said a statement from web host BurstNET Technologies Monday.

Blogetery, a platform for some 70,000 blogs, was taken down by BurstNET after the Federal Bureau of Investigation asked BurstNET “to provide information regarding ownership” of the server hosting Blogetery.com,” BurstNET said.

BurstNET shuttered Blogetery at its own discretion, after concluding it was violating its “Acceptable Use Policy.”

“It was revealed that a link to terrorist material, including bomb-making instructions and an al-Qaida ‘hit list,’ had been posted to the site,” BurstNET said.

CNET said the material allegedly discovered by the FBI “is connected to an online magazine called Inspire,” whose mission is to recruit al-Qaida members.

A message on Blogetery.com said, “[O]ur server was terminated without any notification or explanation.” Attempts to reach the site’s operators were not immediately successful.

The message board at webhostingtalk.com was inundated with Blogetery.com customer complaints.

“So BurstNet can ‘kill’ your server any time and give you BS reason about some ‘law enforcement officials,’” one message read.

Photo: cliff1066/Flickr

See Also:

• Hollywood-Funded Study Concludes Piracy Fosters Terrorism
• Estonia Drops Cyberwar Theory, Claims Packets Were ‘Terrorism
• U.S. Spies Want to Find Terrorists in World of Warcraft
• Miami Terrorism Case Built on Wiretaps Crumbles, Again
• Report: FBI Mishandles Terror Watch List
• TracFone: Cell Phone Unlocking Supports Terrorism

Full post as published by Threat Level on July 19, 2010 (boomark / email).