Megaupload seizure and server data destruction AI-researched
Dependency: Megaupload file hosting Wikipedia
The U.S. government seized Megaupload on January 19, 2012; hosting provider Leaseweb subsequently wiped 690 servers containing petabytes of user data without warning, while Carpathia's servers were frozen in legal limbo, leaving 150 million registered users with no path to recover legitimate files.
What changed
On January 19, 2012, the U.S. Department of Justice seized Megaupload.com and indicted its founders on copyright infringement charges. The service had 150 million registered users and handled roughly four percent of all internet traffic. Alongside pirated material, the platform stored a vast quantity of legitimate personal files, creative works, independent music, and digital art shared via direct links.
After the seizure, Megaupload’s assets were frozen, meaning it could no longer pay its hosting providers. The U.S. government told hosting companies Carpathia and Leaseweb they were free to delete the data once the government finished its forensic examination. In June 2013, Dutch hosting provider Leaseweb wiped all Megaupload data from 690 servers — petabytes of files, primarily from European users — without notifying Megaupload’s legal team. Kim Dotcom called it a “data massacre.” Carpathia, by contrast, continued storing its servers at a cost of roughly $9,000 per day, but the U.S. government blocked their transfer to Megaupload or its users.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation represented individual users who sought to recover their personal files, but no legal mechanism was ever established to return data to legitimate users. The case set a precedent in which an entire cloud storage platform’s user base lost access to their files as collateral damage of a law enforcement action, with no restitution process. Independent musicians, filmmakers, and digital artists who had used Megaupload as a distribution channel or backup service lost work permanently.