AP: Citing imminent danger Cloudflare drops hate site Kiwi Farms

Citing imminent danger Cloudflare drops hate site Kiwi Farms
Associated Press (archive.ph)
2022-09-04 21:57:59GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Citing an “immediate threat to human life,” Cloudflare has dropped the notorious stalking and harassment site Kiwi Farms from its internet security services following an online campaign started by transgender Twitch streamer Clara Sorrenti to pressure it to do so.

“This is an extraordinary decision for us to make and given Cloudflare’s role as an Internet infrastructure provider, a dangerous one that we are not comfortable with,” CEO Matthew Prince wrote in a blog post Saturday. “However, the rhetoric on the Kiwifarms site and specific, targeted threats have escalated over the last 48 hours to the point that we believe there is an unprecedented emergency and immediate threat to human life unlike what we have previously seen from Kiwifarms or any other customer before.”

For years, members of the site have congregated on what they call a “lighthearted discussion forum” to organize vicious harassment campaigns against transgender people, feminists and others they deem mockable. They gang up on victims and pool their personal details such as addresses and phone numbers in a practice called “doxxing,” spreading vile rumors and targeting workplaces, friends, families and homes. Another favorite tactic has been “swatting” — making false emergency calls to provoke an armed police response at a target’s home. Some people subjected to the group’s abuse have died by suicide.

Sorrenti, who goes by Keffals online, has been leading a campaign to pressure Cloudflare to drop Kiwi Farms. In August, she fled her home in Canada for Europe after she was doxxed and swatted. Her online stalkers, however, found her in Belfast, Ireland, as well and continued to intensify their harassment campaign against her just as her campaign against Kiwi Farms and its enablers was gaining momentum.

“When a multi-billion dollar corporation like Cloudflare has to drop Kiwi Farms because of an ‘imminent and emergency threat to human life’ it is no longer a matter of free speech. Removing Kiwi Farms from the internet is a matter of public safety for every single person online,” she tweeted on Saturday.

On Sunday, Kiwi Farms was inaccessible. But a version of the site with a .ru domain name was intermittently up and running, though it was not clear whether it would remain up.

“There has never been a violent incident in our history, which cannot be said for many other sites still on Cloudflare. This narrative feels like a lie spun up to save face,” Moon, who posts on Kiwi Farms under the pseudonym “Null,” posted Saturday in response to Cloudflare’s cutoff. Reached earlier by The Associated Press to comment on the campaign against his site, Moon replied only “the press are scum.”

KiwiFarms.ru is registered to and protected by the Russian company DDoS-Guard, whose customers have in the past included Russian government websites including the Defense Ministry and cybercriminal forums where stolen credit cards are bought and sold.

Last year, DDoS-Guard protected the pro-Trump social media website Parler.com for a time after Amazon withdrew hosting services. KiwiFarms.ru was registered on July 12, suggesting the site’s creator and administrator, Joshua Conner Moon, was aware Cloudflare could drop his site and thus created a backup plan.

DDoS-Guard did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment on Sunday. Its internet connection is provided by VegasNAP, a Las Vegas-based company that said in response to queries last week that it does not disclose information about its clients. Contacted again Sunday, the company did not immediately respond.

 

[Cpl. Long Dong Silver]

Am I on another list now?

Can I get a medal or a paper or something?

You get a prize once you fill in your watch list bingo.

 

[IrishGuy088]

View attachment 3681161

It is all so performative. The site is still up and easily accessible. When will Keffals ask for more money?

 

[MarvinTheParanoidAndroid]

But they're a company so they can do whatever they want guise.

Even outright lie about what they want guise.

This is a stupid thing to piss and moan about, and the logic behind it of compelled business could easily be applied to the Farms itself. If you can compel a business to work with someone they don't want to, you can also compel them to not work with someone they do. What you're asking for is the same authoritarian pressure that got Cloudflare to block KF in the first place, but just in your favor.

"Rules for thee but not for me."

 

[Beak Thing]

This is a stupid thing to piss and moan about, and the logic behind it of compelled business could easily be applied to the Farms itself. If you can compel a business to work with someone they don't want to, you can also compel them to not work with someone they do. What you're asking for is the same authoritarian pressure that got Cloudflare to block KF in the first place, but just in your favor.

"Rules for thee but not for me."

It depends on the circumstances too. If a company is just acting as a proxy for the government to restrict rights, that's a lot different from freedom of association. In this case it sounds like they just listened to a bunch of dumbasses on Twitter though.

 

[Just A Butt]

https://apnews.com/article/technology-gay-rights-7d64f7b71736e091a4b5d1b3935551b5

https://archive.ph/Cadb7

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Citing an “immediate threat to human life,” Cloudflare has dropped the notorious stalking and harassment site Kiwi Farms from its internet security services following an online campaign started by transgender Twitch streamer Clara Sorrenti to pressure it to do so.

“This is an extraordinary decision for us to make and given Cloudflare’s role as an Internet infrastructure provider, a dangerous one that we are not comfortable with,” CEO Matthew Prince wrote in a blog post Saturday in an about-face after earlier insisting that the company would not block the site. “However, the rhetoric on the Kiwifarms site and specific, targeted threats have escalated over the last 48 hours to the point that we believe there is an unprecedented emergency and immediate threat to human life unlike what we have previously seen from Kiwifarms or any other customer before.”

For years, members of the site created and operated by Joshua Conner Moon, 29, have congregated on what they call a “lighthearted discussion forum” to organize vicious harassment campaigns against transgender people, feminists and others they deem mockable. They gang up on victims and pool their personal details such as addresses and phone numbers in a practice called “doxxing,” spreading vile rumors and targeting workplaces, friends, families and homes. Another favorite tactic has been “swatting” — making false emergency calls to provoke an armed police response at a target’s home. Some people subjected to the group’s abuse have died by suicide.

Sorrenti, who goes by “Keffals” online, has been leading a campaign to pressure Cloudflare to drop Kiwi Farms. In August, she fled her home in Canada for Europe after she was doxxed and swatted. Her online stalkers, however, found her in Belfast, Ireland, as well and continued to intensify their harassment campaign against her just as her campaign against Kiwi Farms and its enablers was gaining momentum.

“When a multi-billion dollar corporation like Cloudflare has to drop Kiwi Farms because of an ‘imminent and emergency threat to human life’ it is no longer a matter of free speech. Removing Kiwi Farms from the internet is a matter of public safety for every single person online,” she tweeted on Saturday.

On Sunday, Kiwi Farms was inaccessible. But a version of the site with a .ru domain name was intermittently up and running, though it was not clear whether it would remain up.

The decision to drop Kiwi Farms Saturday was an about-face for Cloudflare and Prince, who earlier in the week put out a 2,600-word blog post — without mentioning the site by name — doubling down on the decision to protect it and comparing Cloudflare to a phone company that “doesn’t terminate your line if you say awful, racist, bigoted things.”

But Sorrenti and other targets of the site say it was far worse than that, as trolls on the site relentlessly pursued their victims offline — often for years on end.

“They are trying to get people to lose their jobs. They’re trying to get people to lose their housing, to be starving and homeless,” Liz Fong-Jones, a former Google engineer and cloud computing expert who is transgender, told the AP last week. “And then they go after people’s families and then they tell people that the only way out is to kill themselves.”

Moon started Kiwi Farms nearly a decade ago as a wiki site dedicated to harassing a transgender woman; Moon even used the woman’s initials in an early version of the site’s name. Over time its users began to target other people -- mostly active online users who are transgender, have autism or other mental conditions. Kiwi Farms in its current form was born in 2015.

An overarching theme of the site’s discussions centers on users’ fierce opposition to transgender children receiving gender-affirming medical care. Members typically refer to those who support such treatment as “groomers” and “pedophiles,” rhetoric that is also used increasingly by conservatives in their opposition to LGBTQ rights.

“There has never been a violent incident in our history, which cannot be said for many other sites still on Cloudflare. This narrative feels like a lie spun up to save face,” Moon, who posts on Kiwi Farms under the pseudonym “Null,” posted Saturday in response to Cloudflare’s cutoff. Reached earlier by The Associated Press to comment on the campaign against his site, Moon replied only “the press are scum.”

KiwiFarms.ru is registered to and protected by the Russian company DDoS-Guard, whose customers have in the past included Russian government websites including the Defense Ministry and cybercriminal forums where stolen credit cards are bought and sold.

Last year, DDoS-Guard protected the pro-Trump social media website Parler.com for a time after Amazon withdrew hosting services. KiwiFarms.ru was registered on July 12, suggesting Moon, was aware Cloudflare could drop his site and thus created a backup plan.

DDoS-Guard did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment on Sunday. Kiwi Farms’ internet connection is provided by VegasNAP, a Las Vegas-based company that said in response to queries last week that it does not disclose information about its clients. Contacted again Sunday, the company did not immediately respond.

“In the past, DDoS-Guard has been known to discontinue support for some seriously problematic websites, apparently as a result of press inquiries. That very well may happen again, in this instance, but I wouldn’t bet on it,” said independent internet expert Ron Guilmette. “Obviously, a lot has changed in the world since February 24, 2022, and I do believe that, in general, Russians these days, and over the past 6 months in particular, have learned to care a whole lot less about what the rest of the world thinks of them and/or their actions.”

 

[Just A Butt]

this one is different cause it's from AP

 

[Calandrino]

this one is different cause it's from AP

AP is well-known to be the most neutral and fact-based news source, so everything in OP is objectively true without doubt.

 

[Kendall Motor Oil]

Hate site? You mean laugh site.

Also the AP and Reuters shifted to more opinionated reporting. Iirc, the one reuters CEO told his employees to shift to "narrative-driven" reporting.

 

[LaxerBRO]

Another favorite tactic has been “swatting” — making false emergency calls to provoke an armed police response at a target’s home.

Does this journalist have clear and convincing evidence that a we organized swatting?

Some people subjected to the group’s abuse have died by suicide.

Yes...posting gossip about someone online leads to suicide it could not have been that they have a mental condition that is nicknamed 41% for a reason.

Moon started Kiwi Farms nearly a decade ago as a wiki site dedicated to harassing a transgender woman;

So the AP is now assigning gender even before Chris Chan knew they were trans?

Members typically refer to those who support such treatment as “groomers” and “pedophiles,” rhetoric that is also used increasingly by conservatives in their opposition to LGBTQ rights.

As a fucking faggot, could the press stop bundling the right gays were functionally denied to fucking Troons.

They are like a fucking anchor dragging the gay and lesbian community down with them.

As to grooming and the claim of gender affirming care, how is advising minors on how to access home brewed cross sex hormones against the will of the parents and with no medical supervision care?

The allegations against Keffals is on our site and the journalist even admitted to visiting us yet they did not do the slightest bit of inquiry into our objections.

Lazy reporting on part of the AP, it's like they just accept what Keffals has giving them in a press kit.

 

[Chocolate Wombat]

Wait, again?

 

[Retink]

Moon started Kiwi Farms nearly a decade ago as a wiki site dedicated to harassing a transgender woman;

Ah yes, that transgender "woman" who fucked his own mom after Null worked hard to set the retard up financially so that he could survive on his own by means of his art work. Claiming KF was dedicated to harassing Chris is absolutely insane when you consider how much Null went out of his way to help the mother fucker.

 

[Penis Drager]

Cloudflare is a bunch of black niggers.

 

[reptile baht spaniard rid]

I’m trying to figure out if the journo quoted Null because he needed a quote and couldn’t say “didn’t respond” or if he thinks it’s funny or if he thinks it makes null look bad because everyone knows the press are perfection incarnate.

 

[derpherp2]

This is a stupid thing to piss and moan about, and the logic behind it of compelled business could easily be applied to the Farms itself. If you can compel a business to work with someone they don't want to, you can also compel them to not work with someone they do. What you're asking for is the same authoritarian pressure that got Cloudflare to block KF in the first place, but just in your favor.

"Rules for thee but not for me."

More like I'm confused about their reasoning in the first place.
Just admit you're tired of batting for nool instead of being a moral aggrandizing faggot. CEO of Cloudflare.

But the bigger issue is decrying "COMPANIES CAN DO WHATEVER THEY WANT" then wringing their arm until they do what you want.
And then throwing a tantrum when they don't.

 

[GarthVader]

Cloudflare are niggerfaggots, prove me wrong....

 

[MarvinTheParanoidAndroid]

More like I'm confused about their reasoning in the first place.
Just admit you're tired of batting for nool instead of being a moral aggrandizing faggot. CEO of Cloudflare.

But the bigger issue is decrying "COMPANIES CAN DO WHATEVER THEY WANT" then wringing their arm until they do what you want.
And then throwing a tantrum when they don't.

I thought you were criticizing the rhetoric as a right leaning position than as a hypocrisy of the left using such rhetoric, as in "see, Randroids? This is what you get when companies have autonomy."

 

[GarthVader]

I raise up my glass against evil forces, whiskey for my men, beer for my horses

 

[Occam's Spork]

Oh looky, the AP is late to the party and factually wrong yet again. This right here is emblematic of why trust in the press in the US at least is at such a low. None of these fuckers does an ounce of research before farting out yet another copy paste of the same bullshit with slightly different wording and sources some other supposed news entity with the same politics because it pays to be lazy when doing real reporting could cost you your livelihood due to a culture of fear. A culture drummed up over lies, half truths, and narratives woven from delusions born of unconditional acceptance and tolerance.

These people seem to think that an absence of criticism will usher in some utopia. In reality, all it is doing is fomenting strife, division and rancor. Some people and views should just simply not be accepted into general society, which does not mean, at all, that the topics and personalities themselves should not be discussed.

All of this is happening because one specific group, transgenders with a closet full of skeletons and an agenda focused specifically on them escaping society's judgement, are shielded by the media (who stand to gain more than marginally on the backs of their retarded activism) and terminally online "allies" on what is called the progressive left, which should be cynically called a cult of sheeple, to use a word they loved to call conservatives just a few years back as an epithet. Especially with Mtf trans people, validation of their delusions is always the utmost priority order of the day. Because without that, their existence and identity is proven to be a lie, as if biological reality didn't do that already. It's all about saving face and an emotional grift. Sometimes a financial one too, as we've seen with Keffals and all the rest with threads here. They invariably have a patreon of some other sort of way to cry or plead for handouts.

So, Fuck troons. I have no issue with non fucked up trans people (yes I know, unicorns), but they are like live grenades with dubious fuses. The best way to deal with trans people anymore is to avoid them whenever possible, since you don't know who they know who could rile up some social media mob for not walking on eggs around them.

 

[Safir]

It's the media/political/tech/academia lockstep that genuinely upsets me. That's what I hate about all this. Trannies, once their behavior and grooming habits are common knowledge, become irrelevant.

Trannies are not irrelevant, they're not a freak cause libs picked up but the ideology of this lockstep distilled to its purest form.

But everyone must realize how dangerous the current situation in the west is. It spells disaster and subjugatation for everyone except the ruling class. I really hope both sides of a split west realize this soon.

There is no "split" in which both sides are pitted against each other by what should be a common enemy, the "left" does in fact want to mutilate children for sexual gratification, including their own children. Trannies are the priests of the pedophile religion, but there are hundreds of millions of lay adherents. Chaya "libsoftiktok" Raichik says the degeneracy is supposed to syat on TikTok, away from parents' eyes, but that ship has in fact sailed: parents are now supposed to buy gender-expanding anal plugs for their children. You've got to admit this is bigger than some trending freak strain of woke feminism when coomer mags push troons on coomers.

This isn't even limited to the First World. You've probably been told that the whole would is united against Russia now - the pedophile alliance is bigger than that. Brazil and India are captured. In Russia itself, "culture" is still ran by pedophiles, even now. A foot fetish prostitute ran the biggest state-mandated children's charity where they were officially advocating for the rape of tard babies, and made off with the money.

You're all lured into a sence of ironic complacency because you view KF as an irrelevant comedy site, what Null wanted it to be. But it's all true. It's all just fucking true.

 

[Just A Butt]

my thread was better cause i'm the one who posted it