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BLOCKING KIWIFARMS

09/03/2022

September 03, 2022 11:15PM

 * Matthew Prince

We have blocked Kiwifarms. Visitors to any of the Kiwifarms sites that use any
of Cloudflare's services will see a Cloudflare block page and a link to this
post. Kiwifarms may move their sites to other providers and, in doing so, come
back online, but we have taken steps to block their content from being accessed
through our infrastructure.

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. 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 we have
previously seen from Kiwifarms or any other customer before.


ESCALATING THREATS

Kiwifarms has frequently been host to revolting content. Revolting content alone
does not create an emergency situation that necessitates the action we are
taking today. Beginning approximately two weeks ago, a pressure campaign started
with the goal to deplatform Kiwifarms. That pressure campaign targeted
Cloudflare as well as other providers utilized by the site.

Cloudflare provides security services to Kiwifarms, protecting them from DDoS
and other cyberattacks. We have never been their hosting provider. As we
outlined last Wednesday, we do not believe that terminating security services is
appropriate, even to revolting content. In a law-respecting world, the answer to
even illegal content is not to use other illegal means like DDoS attacks to
silence it.

We are also not taking this action directly because of the pressure campaign.
While we have empathy for its organizers, we are committed as a security
provider to protecting our customers even when they run deeply afoul of popular
opinion or even our own morals. The policy we articulated last Wednesday remains
our policy. We continue to believe that the best way to relegate cyberattacks to
the dustbin of history is to give everyone the tools to prevent them.

However, as the pressure campaign escalated, so did the rhetoric on the
Kiwifarms site. Feeling attacked, users of the site became even more aggressive.
Over the last two weeks, we have proactively reached out to law enforcement in
multiple jurisdictions highlighting what we believe are potential criminal acts
and imminent threats to human life that were posted to the site.


LEGAL PROCESS

While law enforcement in these areas are working to investigate what we and
others reported, unfortunately the process is moving more slowly than the
escalating risk. While we believe that in every other situation we have faced —
including the Daily Stormer and 8chan — it would have been appropriate as an
infrastructure provider for us to wait for legal process, in this case the
imminent and emergency threat to human life which continues to escalate causes
us to take this action.

Hard cases make bad law. This is a hard case and we would caution anyone from
seeing it as setting precedent. The policies we articulated last Wednesday
remain our policies. For an infrastructure provider like Cloudflare, legal
process is still the correct way to deal with revolting and potentially illegal
content online.

But we need a mechanism when there is an emergency threat to human life for
infrastructure providers to work expediently with legal authorities in order to
ensure the decisions we make are grounded in due process. Unfortunately, that
mechanism does not exist and so we are making this uncomfortable emergency
decision alone.


NOT THE END

Finally, we are aware and concerned that our action may only fan the flames of
this emergency. Kiwifarms itself will most likely find other infrastructure that
allows them to come back online, as the Daily Stormer and 8chan did themselves
after we terminated them. And, even if they don't, the individuals that used the
site to increasingly terrorize will feel even more isolated and attacked and may
lash out further. There is real risk that by taking this action today we may
have further heightened the emergency.

We will continue to work proactively with law enforcement to help with their
investigations into the site and the individuals who have posted what may be
illegal content to it. And we recognize that while our blocking Kiwifarms
temporarily addresses the situation, it by no means solves the underlying
problem. That solution will require much more work across society. We are
hopeful that our action today will help provoke conversations toward addressing
the larger problem. And we stand ready to participate in that conversation.


We protect entire corporate networks, help customers build Internet-scale
applications efficiently, accelerate any website or Internet application, ward
off DDoS attacks, keep hackers at bay, and can help you on your journey to Zero
Trust.

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Matthew Prince |@eastdakota
Cloudflare |Cloudflare

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