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continued to operate the website for nearly two weeks and thus distribute child pornography, i.e. exactly the same crime the bureau sought to stop. The lawyer of a defendant in the case stated that the FBI not only operated the website, but improved it so its number of visitors rose sharply while it
185:
Challenges were raised about the FBI's possible severe misuse of the initial search warrant, leading to the likely dismissal of much of the gathered evidence against one defendant. The warrant stated it was to be used to gather information on people in the
Eastern District of Virginia only, but
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While the FBI claimed to have knowledge about the existence of the website right from its beginning, it was unable to track down the server locations or the site owner. This was because the website was hosted anonymously through
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who created the website, to 30 years in prison in May 2017. His two co-defendants pleaded guilty and were sentenced to 20 years each earlier in 2017 for their involvement in
Playpen.
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because the NIT malware indiscriminately infected people using the site, it was in fact used to gather information from many other areas. Before the change to
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When it was shut down in March 2015, the site had over 215,000 users and hosted 23,000 sexually explicit images and videos of children as young as toddlers.
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In 2017, the FBI dropped charges against one defendant after the court for that case requested details on the NIT malware. The FBI preferred to keep the
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119:(FBI) hijacking the site and continuing to serve content for two weeks (from February 19, 2015 until March 4, 2015). During this time the FBI used a
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which allowed users to use the website anonymously. After running the website for 6 months, the website owner Steven W. Chase was captured by the
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because of the generality of the warrant, and because after having taken control of the website, the
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ruled that the warrant was invalid but that the evidence obtained was not required to be
96:. After his capture, the FBI continued to run the website for another 13 days as part of
127:" (NIT) to hack into the web browsers of users accessing the site in what is known as a
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website that operated from August 2014 to March 2015. The website operated through the
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454:"A massive FBI child porn probe has lawyers asking: Does the end justify the means?"
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The investigation led to the sentencing of Steven W. Chase, a 58-year-old man from
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Electronic
Frontier Foundation -- Frequently Asked Questions about Playpen case
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finally allowed law enforcement to track down both the servers and personnel.
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391:"Playpen: The Story of the FBI's Unprecedented and Illegal Hacking Operation"
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1223:
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1247:
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325:"The Feds Would Rather Drop a Child Porn Case Than Give Up a Tor Exploit"
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225:"Creator of infamous Playpen website sentenced to 30 years in prison"
358:"To keep Tor hack source code secret, DOJ dismisses child porn case"
260:"Admin of Dark Web Child Pornography Website "Playpen" Found Guilty"
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714:
697:
680:
725:
609:
483:"It is not OK to break the law to catch criminals, judge rules"
423:"FBI improved a Dark Web child pornography site, lawyer argues"
190:
in 2016 to allow it, this was illegal. On August 28, 2019, the
539:"How an obscure rule lets law enforcement search any computer"
93:
510:"The Playpen Story: Rule 41 and Global Hacking Warrants"
292:"FBI: Special ed teacher caught with infant rape photos"
139:. Only a mishap of the site owner that revealed his
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1472:*Maintains additional presence on the surface web
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1507:Internet properties disestablished in 2015
1502:Federal Bureau of Investigation operations
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29:
173:The investigation was criticized by the
1512:Internet properties established in 2014
210:
7:
370:from the original on August 25, 2017
253:
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165:a secret for future investigations.
337:from the original on July 29, 2024
323:Newman, Lily Hay (March 7, 2017).
304:from the original on June 11, 2021
25:
290:Pulkkinen, Levi (July 14, 2015).
192:Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals
658:
657:
647:
356:Farivar, Cyrus (March 5, 2017).
1200:Freedom of the Press Foundation
794:Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
580:from the original on 2020-08-06
568:"No. 17-14915 and No. 18-11852"
549:from the original on 2023-03-17
520:from the original on 2023-03-17
464:from the original on 2021-05-15
435:from the original on 2017-02-15
421:Conditt, Jessica (2016-08-23).
403:from the original on 2017-05-29
272:from the original on 2017-05-06
258:Cimpanu, Catalin (2016-09-17).
237:from the original on 2017-05-08
125:Network Investigative Technique
117:Federal Bureau of Investigation
111:The shutdown operation, called
1194:Electronic Frontier Foundation
514:Electronic Frontier Foundation
485:. June 8, 2017. Archived from
175:Electronic Frontier Foundation
27:Darknet child pornography site
1:
1444:Terms of Service; Didn't Read
1298:Distributed Denial of Secrets
1113:Russian Anonymous Marketplace
223:Farivar, Cyrus (2017-05-05).
1497:Defunct Tor hidden services
1279:Central Intelligence Agency
508:Rumold, Mark (2016-09-26).
389:Rumold, Mark (2016-09-15).
1533:
1492:Child pornography websites
297:Seattle Post-Intelligencer
182:was under their control.
1453:
643:
808:Independent Media Center
72:Offline (as of May 2015)
1180:Nonprofit organizations
1218:Privacy International
1188:Amnesty International
1068:Black Market Reloaded
1212:La Quadrature du Net
1206:Front Line Defenders
200:good-faith exception
129:watering hole attack
1517:Underground culture
1083:The Farmer's Market
169:Shutdown criticisms
69:Current status
32:
1128:White House Market
874:Free Haven Project
823:The New York Times
637:Tor onion services
265:news.softpedia.com
113:Operation Pacifier
98:Operation Pacifier
18:Operation Pacifier
1479:
1478:
1234:Operating systems
1138:Document archives
1118:Tor Carding Forum
1098:Sheep Marketplace
900:instant messaging
765:The Daily Stormer
545:. December 2016.
86:child pornography
76:
75:
51:Available in
42:Child pornography
16:(Redirected from
1524:
1380:Welcome to Video
1157:Internet Archive
1152:Doxbin (darknet)
836:Voice of America
752:Die Tageszeitung
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1013:The Hidden Wiki
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879:KickassTorrents
869:Freedom Hosting
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788:Radio Free Asia
746:Current Time TV
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489:on June 8, 2017
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673:Search engines
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595:External links
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1093:Hydra Market
1073:Dream Market
951:Social media
855:file sharing
851:peer-to-peer
847:File storage
821:
813:
801:The Guardian
799:
763:
686:Brave Search
582:. Retrieved
562:
551:. Retrieved
542:
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522:. Retrieved
513:
503:
491:. Retrieved
487:the original
477:
466:. Retrieved
458:Star Tribune
457:
448:
437:. Retrieved
428:engadget.com
426:
416:
405:. Retrieved
394:
384:
372:. Retrieved
363:Ars Technica
361:
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339:. Retrieved
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239:. Retrieved
230:Ars Technica
228:
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133:
112:
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102:
97:
78:
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37:Type of site
1364:Lolita City
1359:Childs Play
1346:Pornography
1319:NawaatLeaks
1108:TheRealDeal
924:Proton Mail
772:Darknetlive
198:due to the
147:Convictions
90:Tor network
64:August 2009
1486:Categories
1438:OnionShare
1324:SecureDrop
1309:GlobaLeaks
1271:Government
1007:Kiwi Farms
830:ProPublica
782:ProPublica
777:DeepDotWeb
740:Bellingcat
692:DuckDuckGo
584:2020-03-10
553:2023-03-17
524:2023-03-17
493:August 25,
468:2021-06-11
439:2017-05-08
407:2017-05-08
374:August 25,
341:August 25,
276:2017-05-07
241:2017-05-08
206:References
202:doctrine.
141:IP address
1336:WildLeaks
1330:WikiLeaks
1224:Telecomix
1169:Z-Library
1103:Silk Road
1078:Evolution
1022:Financial
1420:Mailpile
1354:Boystown
1304:Filtrala
1248:Qubes OS
1242:DivestOS
1063:Atlantis
1058:AlphaBay
979:Facebook
936:Tor Mail
734:BBC News
663:Category
575:Archived
547:Archived
543:Engadget
518:Archived
462:Archived
433:Archived
401:Archived
368:Archived
335:Archived
308:June 11,
302:Archived
270:Archived
235:Archived
196:excluded
123:-based "
61:Launched
1468:Tor2web
1426:Mullvad
1414:F-Droid
1408:DEF CON
1396:1.1.1.1
1374:Pornhub
1369:Playpen
1163:Sci-Hub
1001:Twitter
990:The Hub
969:Dark0de
941:TorChat
918:Keybase
709:MetaGer
396:eff.org
188:Rule 41
163:malware
153:Florida
121:malware
83:darknet
79:Playpen
55:English
45:sharing
31:Playpen
1432:Njalla
1260:Whonix
1123:Utopia
995:Reddit
985:HackBB
955:forums
930:Riseup
863:BTDigg
81:was a
1402:Brave
1389:Other
1314:Ljost
1254:Tails
1088:Hansa
1053:Agora
1035:Helix
974:Dread
963:8chan
913:Briar
895:Email
715:Searx
704:Grams
698:Cliqz
681:Ahmia
578:(PDF)
571:(PDF)
330:Wired
953:and
849:and
726:News
653:List
495:2017
376:2017
343:2017
310:2021
1458:Tor
897:and
179:FBI
160:NIT
137:Tor
94:FBI
1488::
573:.
541:.
516:.
512:.
460:.
456:.
431:.
425:.
399:.
393:.
366:.
360:.
333:.
327:.
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294:.
268:.
262:.
250:^
233:.
227:.
213:^
100:.
1446:*
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1410:*
1404:*
1398:*
1376:*
1332:*
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