Just one improbable force has ever made a concerted, long-term effort in an attempt to stifle 0chan’s abuse – a subset of users originating from Kiwi Farms.
For anyone familiar with the name Kiwi Farms, this should come as a surprise. At its core, the site is a forum strictly centered around making fun of ‘lolcows’ (a slang term for anyone capable of being "milked for laughs"). Often targeting transgender and neurodivergent individuals, Kiwi Farms became infamous for doxxing victims. Over the years, bullying stemming from the site has been connected to at least three suicides.
In short, Kiwi Farms is a problematic place filled with problematic people with very few morals concerning online conduct. But even Kiwi Farms users, callous as many of them may be, took issue with 0chan. So, albeit in some of the least ethical ways possible, some members began to take action.
The most visible impact of Kiwi Farms vigilantes? 0chan is frequently flooded with shock pornography. As juvenile as the technique may be, it simultaneously buries violent monkey content underneath a mountain of erect penises and annoys moderators forced to battle an incessant stream of spam. But the Farms have also made more concrete efforts to stop the spread of the worst torture content. On multiple occasions, Farms users have made their way onto the goriest Telegram groups and subsequently report illegal activities to the service, in turn booting the most egregious users and breaking up lines of communication. In what could be considered their best or worst attack of all, they doxxed Mr. Ape, which in turn caused him to cease his activities and disappear off of 0chan without a trace.
But the sins of Kiwi Farms have caught up with them in the past few weeks. After
sending a SWAT team to US congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene’s home as a prank, the site began receiving widespread mainstream backlash. Twitch streamer and political activist
Clara Sorrenti began a Twitter campaign to shut down the Farms, which successfully culminated in network provider Cloudflare dropping the site. As of the publication of this article, Kiwi Farms is essentially defunct.
And with the appeal of a malignant cancer, it’s pretty difficult to argue that its eradication hasn’t made the internet a better place. But with their removal, so too goes the semblance of any force attempting to end this hyperspecific animal abuse representative of the worst humanity has to offer.
Perhaps that makes now a better time than ever to consider what we can do to fight against stuff so horrific that many of us would rather believe it doesn’t exist at all.
