FBI Uses 'Sledgehammer' to Seize E-Mail Server in Search

In addition to Mixmaster’s remailing service, which helps human rights activists and others prevent their communications from being traced to them, the server was used by the Seattle-based digital activist group Riseup Networks, as then as May First/People Link, a politically progressive internet service provider. The server was operated by European Counter Network, an ISP based in Italy.

“There is permanently no legitimate purpose for the FBI to seize this server because they will not be able to obtain any information about the sender,” he wrote. “This is plainly extra-judicial punishment and an attack on free speech and anonymity on the internet and serves as a chilling effect on others providers of anonymous remailers or other anonymous services.”

The first time the FBI has seized entire servers

It’s not the first time the FBI has seized entire servers, resulting in a loss of business and service to multiple parties not a target of an investigation. In 2009, the FBI seized multiple servers in a raid on a Texas data center over an investigation into VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) fraud that was prompted by complaints from AT&T and Verizon about unpaid bills owed by some of the data center clients.

As a result, Liquid Motors, which provides inventory management and marketing services to national automobile dealers and was not part of the investigation, was unable to fulfill its service contracts with clients. It was just one of about 50 companies that were put out of business by the raid.