The FBI yesterday seized a pair of UK servers used by Indymedia, the independent newsgathering collective, after serving a subpoena in the US on Indymedia’s hosting firm, Rackspace. Why or how remains unclear.
Yes, the FBI acting with cooperation of local police can seize web servers worldwide. How Orwellian. Do you feel safer now? I didn’t think so.
The seizure of Indymedia’s servers affects more than 30 Indymedia sites worldwide.
While Indymedia is not exactly sure what prompted the action, the group does have one strong idea. A French Indymedia site last month posted photos of what it believed to be undercover Swiss police officers photographing protesters at a French event. Indymedia received a request from the FBI to pull those photos down, as they “revealed personal information” about the undercover police said Indymedia press officer Hep Sano.
“They never clarified what they meant by personal information,” she said. “The photos were taken on a public street.”