The end of Kiwifarms, one of the worst places on the internet

The end of Kiwifarms

Kiwifarms is a forum founded almost ten years ago, known for having frequently hosted misogynistic and discriminatory content, especially towards LGBT + people. Many have labeled it the "worst place on the Internet", an honor that rivals other alt-right forums, such as 8chan. Kiwifarms has often been the scene of threats and harassment directed at individuals, which have even led to suicide. Its patrons use the most ferocious methods to attack their victims, such as doxxing (the online publication of personal data such as home, office or telephone number) or swatting (reporting to the police of a violent crime about to take place in a person's home, so that the police rush to the scene armed and ready to strike).

The last person to be targeted by Kiwifarms was Clara Sorrenti , known under the pseudonym of Keffals, a creator active on Twitch (where she manages a channel dedicated to news and politics) and activist for the rights of trans people. Sorrenti opened her door on August 5, finding himself face to face with a policeman who pointed a gun to her face. Someone had sent a false email to communicate that Sorrenti intended to carry out a massacre in front of the town hall in her city (London, Ontario). The police were unable to identify who was really the perpetrator of the threats. In the following weeks, Sorrenti continued to receive such heavy harassment that she was forced to leave Canada.

But she did not stand by: thanks to her considerable following on Twitch (over fifty thousand subscribers) and on Twitter (one hundred and fifty thousand followers) she started a campaign called #DropKiwifarms, directed to the cloudflare security service provider , of which Kiwifarms was a customer. Sorrenti and campaign supporters have asked Cloudflare to terminate their contract with Kiwifarms, and stop "protecting perpetrators" against marginalized people. Cloudflare initially responded with a post outlining its content moderation policies. The article explains the difference in approach towards hosting service customers, for which Cloudflare takes greater responsibility, and those of simple security services, such as Kiwifarms. In short: Cloudflare can stop a hosting service if the customer uses it to spread violent or dangerous content. On the other hand, "interrupting access to services that protect against cyber attacks is not the correct approach". The underlying concept is that "organizations closest to content are best at determining whether content constitutes abuse" and that "too large removals can have a significant and unintended impact on access to online content." >
There is a specific logic behind Cloudflare's policies with respect to moderation, but the challenges of serving customers like Kiwifarms are evident. And in fact, even the company has changed its mind. On 3 September he decided to block the forum, announcing it with another article. The forum, the post explains, posed an immediate danger to human lives. Cloudflare continues to argue that it is not comfortable with the decision. "We don't believe terminating security services is appropriate, not even for revolting content." writes CEO Matthew Prince "In a law-abiding world, the answer to illegal content is not to use other illegal means, such as DDoS attacks, to counter it." The suspension of Cloudflare's services would in fact make customers vulnerable to cyber attacks. Prince also denies that the choice is a consequence of Sorrenti's campaign. However, it is not the first time that Cloudflare has made a similar decision: in the past it had stopped collaborating with the alt-right forum 8chan and with the neo-Nazi website Daily Stormer.

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The directors of Kiwifarms turned to the Russian company DDoS - Guard, which however decided after twenty-four hours to follow in Cloudflare's footsteps and suspend security services. The #DropKiwifarms website reports founder Josh Moon's words: “I don't see a situation where Kiwifarms is simply allowed to operate. Either it will become an empty shell like 8chan, or it will switch between hosts and domains like Daily Stormer. " On September 6, Keffals announced on Twitter that Kiwifarms has also been removed from The Internet Archive, the monumental digital library, which, among other things, collects backups of millions of web pages. The site continues to be offline.

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