Verizon, Like AT&T, Claims 4chan Wasn’t Blocked – 4chan Offers Evidence to the Contrary

Following our previous coverage, 4chan has issued a statement on the heels of Verizon Wireless lifting their block (or, as Verizon argues, “protection”) against 4chan.

Verizon Wireless early today argued that the denial of access stemmed from a Distributed Denial of Service attack on the internet site 4chan.org. That’s about the end of where 4chan and Verizon agree.

Verizon argues that this was necessary to protect their network, as users on their network were infected with a computer virus that causes their network to overload with requests to 4chan’s web site. However, system administrators for 4chan confirmed that Verizon made no effort to contact them ahead of this blockade, or make any effort to work with 4chan to mitigate the attack.

In this midst of this, Comcast briefly blocked the site but resumed access within a short period. Verizon appears to hold the dismaying record for the longest blockade of 4chan without contacting the site itself.

This is a painful lesson for the telecoms that their NOCs (Network Operation Centers) must learn – which is, to contact admins of affected web sites. Telecom NOCs continue to ignore, or intentionally turn a blind eye to the public impact of not working with site owners. AT&T made the same mistake in recent months, taking similar action by blocking specific 4chan servers from their DSL and U-Verse customers. AT&T used similar arguments to defend their legally-questionable shoot-first-contact-admins-later actions.

Representatives for Verizon Wireless have not responded to our requests for comment, nor have they responded to other similar requests from other members of the media.