AT&T has made the foolish decision to block /b/ and /r9k/ (4chan). I, for one, am not personally affected because about a half a year ago we switched to comcast, but I know many people are going to be affected. This article says 15.5% of all US internet users use AT&T DSL, which is a pretty sizable amount. (Ironically, my gramma called me today to tell me she got a laptop– and AT&T internet.)

Now, I don’t go to 4chan anymore myself, but this is fucking CENSORSHIP. This is like a slap in the face for everyone who has been trying to fight for net neutrality. It’s definitely a huge step backwards. /b/ may be full of porn and people’s heads blowing off, but the internet is free, or at least, it should be. /b/ has a strong anti-CP policy and mods who enforce that policy. 4chan’s TOS says anything not legal in the USA is not to be posted, and active mods delete anything that would fall underneath a breach of TOS, usually with a ban.

If the reason they’re blocking it is CP or whatever, that’s punishing all of the users for the actions of a select few, which I find to be extremely wrong. Punish the user themselves, don’t punish the masses because a few people don’t know how to follow rules. It’s like… cutting off the nose to spite the face, or something. Hard to believe, but there is ‘good’ and honestly entertaining content on /b/. I know that it’s relatively harmless because I used to be a hardcore /b/tard. Basically, all that existed there was a bunch of cocks and memes being spouted over and over. Sometimes there was intelligent discussion, but for the most part said ‘discussions’ were EUROFAGS vs AMERIFAGS or something similar. The rare CP thread was quickly 404’d.

If they get away with blocking one site, it’s only a slippery slide until they start blocking others. Don’t give them an inch unless you are prepared for them to take a mile. Once they see they can get away with blocking one particular site, they’ll start blocking more and more in the interest of ‘safety’. I have never been the type of person to give away personal freedom for the sake of ‘safety’.

I can see some /b/tards leaving AT&T because of this, and I wouldn’t blame them. AT&T was shitty enough when I had it, but this would definitely be the last straw for me if I were still using their service. Some people on Digg are switching just from the premise even though they don’t personally use 4chan.

There’s an article about it on ED, and I originally found out about it on digg. This will be comcast’s lucky day, I suppose.

TL;DR: The internet is free. If I want to go to the ‘cesspool of the internet’, I should be free to do so, and I recognize with that right comes responsibility. If I don’t want to see mauled bodies, I will close the X myself, I do not need you doing it for me. Quit trying to be Internet Nanny™, AT&T.