The shutdowns targeted mooo.com, the most popular shared domain at free web service provider FreeDNS. FreeDNS is a free domain service that is immensely popular among file sharers, blogs, small businesses, and other independent operators. Its homepage is afraid.org.
With the mooo.com shutdown last Friday, the ICE accidentally shut down 84,000 subdomain pages. The pages were all redirected to a banner that stated “Advertisement, distribution, transportation, receipt, and possession of child pornography constitute federal crimes that carry penalties for first time offenders of up to 30 years in federal prison, a $250,000 fine, forfeiture and restitution.”
The court order to shut down and redirect the sites was granted via a seizure warrant from a District Court. The warrant was executed as part of the DHS ICE team’s “Operation Save Our Children”.
The key problem is that none of the sites thus identified under the mooo.com superdomain had child porn on them. They appear to have been the victim of an overzealous government police force with a bit too much power on its hands.
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