FBI communication led to mass blog site shutdown

It seems that the Blogetry shutdown was an over-reaction by the webhost (Burst.net) in response to a "Voluntary Emergency Disclosure of Information request" from the FBI. Rather than giving the information requested, Burst.net just wiped everything.

I think I smell a damages lawsuit coming up somewhere but even if there is no legal attack on Burst.net it is pretty clear that other customers of such an irresponsible company should be thinking about taking their business elsewhere

The attempt by Burst.net to hide behind "Terms of Service" violations is as shallow as a birdbath. Most webhosts have such a huge list of vaguely-worded "Terms of Service" that they could find in the list some justification to knock down ANYTHING posted on their servers if they wanted to.

"A popular website that hosted more than 70,000 bloggers was shut down suddenly last week after the FBI informed its chief technology officer that the site contained hit lists, bomb-making documents and links to Al Qaeda materials, it was reported on Monday.

When the WordPress platform Blogetery.com went dead, the initial explanation from the site’s host, Burst.net, was that ‘a law-enforcement agency’ had ordered it to shut down, citing a ‘history of abuse.’ The explanation caused a wave of conspiracy theories in the blogosphere.

But according to a report on CNET Monday, Burst.net shut down Blogetery.com when it became spooked by a letter from the FBI, in which the bureau detailed the presence of terrorist materials among the blog posts.”

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