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FBI Controlled 23 Child Porn Sites To Catch Predators

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Eric Lieberman Managing Editor
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The FBI was apparently running 23 child pornography websites in order to ensnare perverts looking to obtain some extremely unsavory content.

The authorities took over the child porn sites and maintained normal operations so that they could trap people seeking child pornography.

The law enforcement agency used a “network investigative technique” (NIT), a form of hacking in which malware (viruses) are sent to targets in order to find out their identity and location.

“While Websites 1-23 operate at a government facility, such request data associated with a user’s actions on Websites 1-23 will be collected,” say unsealed documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

Activists led by the ACLU wanted more details of the FBI’s mass child porn hacking due to privacy concerns, so they filed a motion for disclosure in September.

In this case, the employment of the NIT was signed off by a judge in Maryland, according to Ars Technica.

The FBI attacks thousands of computers from around the globe in order to identify the visitors to the illegal website, according to a Motherboard report.

“As the hacking techniques become more ambitious, failure in execution can lead to large-scale privacy and civil liberties abuses at home and abroad,” Ahmed Ghappour, a professor at the University of California’s Hastings College of the Law, told The Washington Post.

A federal court ruled in August that evidence of child pornography is inadmissible when acquired without a warrant.

One of Australia’s premiere law enforcement agencies, Queensland Police Service’s Task Force Argos, also hacked U.S. internet users through the same means, much like the FBI in August.

The FBI ultimately nabbed several suspects.

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