Cloudflare affirms that it is unlikely to end service for harassment campaign forum
There has been a campaign demanding Cloudflare end service for Kiwi Farms amid the latter's harassment of a trans Twitch streamer.
It’s been an intense last couple of week for Twitch streamer Clara “Keffals” Sorrenti, who faced a gauntlet of harassment, doxing of her home address, and even a swatting incident, mostly at the hands of a campaign carried out by controversial forum Kiwi Farms. In the wake of this, another campaign has begun demanding Cloudflare (who hosts Kiwi Farms’ web services) drop the website from its services. Cloudflare has recently indicated it is unlikely to do so.
It was recently that Cloudflare posted a lengthy statement regarding its service, security, and harassment policies. In said address, Cloudflare shared that it does not take down sites lightly or due to outside pressure due to the “bad precedent” it would set.
“Just as the telephone company doesn't terminate your line if you say awful, racist, bigoted things, we have concluded in consultation with politicians, policy makers, and experts that turning off security services because we think what you publish is despicable is the wrong policy,” Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince wrote. “To be clear, just because we did it in a limited set of cases before doesn’t mean we were right when we did. Or that we will ever do it again.”
Source: Twitter
It's worth noting, Cloudflare will remove services for clients if they violate its Acceptable Hosting Policy. Mostly this pertains to IP protection and preventing human or illegal drugs trafficking. However, there is a particular detail regarding use of private information in Cloudflare's own policies. Under its guideline, content can be removed or disabled if it “is otherwise illegal, harmful, or violates the rights of others, including content that discloses sensitive personal information, incites or exploits violence against people or animals, or seeks to defraud the public.”
This is particular note because some of the biggest points of contention in the Keffals case is that Kiwi Farms is alleged to have gained the information to dox her and then swat her. It has gone up to and included forcing Keffals into hiding, and she isn’t the only one Kiwi Farms has been alleged to have targeted and harassed in such a manner.
While Cloudflare seems to be attempting to remain agnostic to its users’ goals and motives, it would also seem that in posting its own policies, it may have to further address the matter with Kiwi Farms in light of the recent story with Keffals and further targets of the site. Stay tuned as we continue to follow this story for further updates.
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replyTJ Denzer posted a new article, Cloudflare affirms that it is unlikely to end service for harassment campaign forum
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“Just as the telephone company doesn't terminate your line if you say awful, racist, bigoted things, we have concluded in consultation with politicians, policy makers, and experts that turning off security services because we think what you publish is despicable is the wrong policy.” What a BS excuse. Phone calls are private between specific parties - what you say online is open to all. It's the difference between me sitting home alone yelling "fire" or doing it in a crowed theater.
Public forums should stop allowing hateful comments period. They do nothing but incite horrible incidents - what's happened to Clara is just one instance of way too many.
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