The FBI’s case against Playpen, the largest child porn site, isn’t the only one that has involved the agency controversially operating websites that feature child abuse content. Recently unsealed documents reveal the FBI may have operated, at least for some time, around half of the active dark web child porn sites this year.
At least 22 websites similar to Playpen were run out of a government facility, according to an FBI affidavit.
In the normal course of the operation of a web site, a user sends “request data” to the web site in order to access that site. 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. That data collection is not a function of the NIT. Such request data can be paired with data collected by the NIT, however, in order to attempt to identify a particular user and to determine that particular user’s actions on Websites 1-23.
In the Playpen case, the FBI seized the website but continued to operate it with the goal of catching pedophiles. As a result, it delivered both real child porn and malware to visitors. The malware has led to some arrests.
Both the FBI’s hacking techniques and its use of a single warrant for hacking thousands of computers have been points of controversy and may be illegal.
