Blockchain social media platform Steemit has banned the hackers who claim to have damning evidence about the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York in 2001. The hackers, known as TheDarkOverlord, were posting details about the 9/11 papers on their Steemit blog, and would release more details in exchange for bitcoins. The blogging platform hasn't releases a statement yet .
Steemit keeps track of the user it banned from its platform. This can either be for violations from the Terms of Service (ToS), or for GDPR reasons. Why TheDarkOverlord has been banned, is not clear. The hackers are one of the six accounts blocked from using Steemit ever again.
Steemit is one of the apps build on the Steem blockchain, so don't confuse the two. Other application on Steem are video platform D.Tube and social media platforms like Busy.org and Minds.com. When a user is banned from Steemit, his content is no longer accessible through that website. But it still exists on the Steem blockchain, and therefore it can still be accessed.
Content from TheDarkOverlord is still visible on Busy.org. And so is the first bit of leaked information regarding the attack on the World Trade Center on the 11th of September 2001.
In the Terms of Service Steemit has added phrases that would allow them to ban any account they want to. Yet, still some people in the Steemit community are disappointed by the censorship from the blockchain platform. They believe it goes against the very nature of blockchain technology.
The hackers are demanding a total of 2 million dollars worth in bitcoin. They've been receiving a couple of bitcoin in the past week, but that's not enough to make release the entire vault of documents. Instead, the group has been released tidbits of information when a certain threshold of donations has been met. Their only intention is money, as they aren't trying to make political statements. They just want bitcoins, and at least they are being honest about that.
Posted from my blog: https://www.nederob.nl/2019/01/09/steemit-bans-9-11-hackers/