Mozilla vs Homeland Security

Although, no one at Mozilla said that an extension called “MafiaaFire” is illegal, but they didn’t stop the U.S. Department of Homeland Security from taking actions to making the extension illegal and removed the application from being downloaded. The Mozilla community received a call from the Department of Homeland Security for the removal of the extension requesting the extension to be removed.

The MafiaaFire extension is a utility that “automatically redirects you to the correct alternate site” if the current site was seized by the U.S. government, a reason why Homeland Security wants the app removed. If the app was allowed to be downloaded, it would make their operations of seizing domain names that has been used for illegal purposes. This can be done through a DNS switchover or a host take down. The extension redirects Firefox to an alternative site if the site intended to be reached has been took down

While Mozilla has not currently removed the app, they are in talks with Homeland Security to see whether Mozilla is obligated to remove the app.  It sounds like the debate would head to the court for decision and not be simply settled without a court hearing.