VBS.TV Blog

VERIZON VS. 4CHAN

February 08, 2010
by JAMES TENAFLY

There are few websites that can accurately be described as “dangerous,” and Verizon just fucked with one of them. For reasons that are sure to become clear in the next few days, Verizon’s decided to block 4chan. If you’re unfamiliar, 4chan’s the digital cesspool responsible, in equal parts, for the proliferation of LOLcats and child pornography across the world wide web. They also have a fairly hilarious war with the Church of Scientology. The board’s founder, moot, had this to say last night on 4chan’s blog:

“After an hour and a half on the phone, we’ve received confirmation from Verizon’s Network Repair Bureau (NRB) that we are “explicitly blocked.”

Last year AT&T blocked 4chan after a DDOS attack related to the site caused trouble for AT&T customers. It took 4chan a matter of hours to retaliate. One might assume a lil’ image board would be powerless in the face of a telecom giant, but 4chan’s campaign of harassment and hackery prompted a reversal of AT&T’s policies practically overnight. It’ll be interesting to see what’s left of Verizon when the dust settles.