The Internet was on fire late last night and early this morning, as news spread that 4Chan was being blocked by AT&T. Customers of AT&T’s broadband internet service (and USENET newsgroup access until recently) were blocked from accessing portions of the website 4chan, a messageboard.

Users of the site reported being blocked over the weekend, raising the hackles of defenders of net neutrality and prompting calls for revenge on the internet service provider. Access to 4chan has since been restored for AT&T broadband customers.

AT&T on Monday acknowledged blocking customer access to the messageboard in order to protect a business customer against what the company said were denial-of-service attacks originating from IP addresses connected to the site.

AT&T said it lifted the block overnight Sunday once it determined that the threat no longer existed.

“This action was in no way related to the content at 4Chan; our focus was on protecting our customers from malicious traffic,” AT&T said Monday.

The initial reaction to retaliate against AT&T also stems from their recent act of discontinuing all USENET access it formerly provided.