Cloudflare says it has blocked Kiwi Farms, citing “an unprecedented emergency and immediate threat to human life” after a recent rise in targeted threats

Reversing course under growing public pressure, major tech security company Cloudflare Inc. announced Saturday …

Washington Post 2022-09-04

Context & Ripple Effects

Cloudflare had initially argued that withholding security services over “despicable” content was the wrong policy, even as pressure mounted over its service to Kiwi Farms. Its later removal of the forum therefore marks a stated exception to that position, tied to targeted threats rather than content alone.

The subsequent critique framed the decision as exposing a “stochastic terrorism loophole”: platforms can defer intervention when harm is indirect rather than an explicit call for violence.

First-order effects

Kiwi Farms loses Cloudflare’s protection after Cloudflare determined that the reported threats met its threshold for an immediate threat to life.
Cloudflare replaces its recently asserted content-neutral service rationale with an emergency-based justification, making the company’s safety assessment central to this case.

Second-order effects

Advocates pressuring infrastructure providers gain a concrete precedent: sustained scrutiny of a customer can force a provider to articulate and apply an exception to its service policy.
Other controversial Cloudflare customers face greater uncertainty about whether indirect threats and targeted harassment can trigger service removal, not just explicitly unlawful content.

Third-order effects

The episode points to infrastructure companies being drawn into moderation decisions when the alleged harm is organized or probabilistic rather than a direct instruction to commit violence.
If providers adopt emergency exceptions more often, the boundary between network-security service and platform governance will be set increasingly by providers’ threat assessments and public accountability.

The trend: Content-neutral infrastructure policies are giving way to narrower safety exceptions as harassment campaigns test whether indirect threats warrant service denial.

Discussion

@eastdakota Matthew Prince on x
We just blocked Kiwifarms. The threats on the site escalated enough in the last 48 hours that, in spite of proactively working with law enforcement, it became enough of an imminent emergency we could no longer wait for them to act. Details of our decision: https://blog.cloudflare…
@cloudflare @cloudflare on x
Escalating threats and the potential risk for human life has compelled Cloudflare to block Kiwifarms from being accessed through our infrastructure. Complete details can be found in our latest blog post. https://blog.cloudflare.com/ ...
@keffals @keffals on x
Cloudflare has dropped Kiwi Farms. Our campaign will put out a statement soon. https://twitter.com/...
@keffals @keffals on x
Our statement on Cloudflare dropping Kiwi Farms. https://twitter.com/...
@taliaotg Talia Jane on x
Worth noting amid all of this that Josh Moon restarted KF on @telegram. The channel currently has +2,600 members but turned off comments (for now). Still openly making threats to @keffals. https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@rmac18 Ryan Mac on x
Feel like these are the 2 most impt paragraphs from Cloudflare's blog on blocking Kiwifarms. 1) The company doesn't want it to feel like it can be bullied 2) It shows those feeling threatened have to goad their harassers to do *more* before CF will act. https://blog.cloudflare.co…
@gossithedog @gossithedog on x
Cloudflare have dropped Kiwi Farms. THANK YOU to everybody who spoke out, including those at Cloudflare. As I've always said, Cloudflare have an unparalleled service and great people. The tone of the blog is unacceptable, but hopefully they work on it. https://blog.cloudflare.com…
@seldo Laurie Voss on x
“We have done the right thing but that means we'll have to do the right thing again in future, and moderation is expensive” https://www.nbcnews.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@brianmfloyd Brian Floyd on x
deeply impressed by the difficult work @oneunderscore__ and others do in this space and respect it so much. it makes a difference https://twitter.com/...
@erratarob @erratarob on x
Probably a good decision for their stock price. Probably a bad decision as far as Internet censorship goes. https://twitter.com/...
@k8em0 @k8em0 on x
This is the correct outcome. It should not have taken this long. https://twitter.com/...
@discordiankitty Laura Shortridge-Scott on x
Cloudfare couldn't have possibly cared less about the harm done through Kiwifarms until it became a PR nightmare. Don't let anyone ever tell you raising awareness doesn't work. https://twitter.com/...
@gossithedog Kevin Beaumont on x
re this, it is interesting that Matthew is blaming law enforcement, who they just contacted, for being slow, since Cloudflare have known about this issue for _years_ and opted not to act. https://twitter.com/...
@the_moviebob @the_moviebob on x
“The real media finally did exactly one story about this, meaning normal non-internet-people found out what it is - forcing us to take the absolute bare-minimum step for human decency.” https://twitter.com/...
@jinkiesjerrica Jerrica on x
Cloudflare has finally blocked Kiwi Farms in response to increasing backlash from clients and the public @LetsGetBritt and i were doxxed by Kiwi Farms on Thursday, and it's been terrifying it's gross that companies are allowed to platform hate and terrorism at their discretion ht…
@glennf Glenn Fleishman on x
Good to remember @Cloudflare CEO thinks Daily Stormer and 8chan “were not hotbeds for specific violent plots.” This is how he sleeps at night apparently. (He dropped those sites and regretted it.) https://twitter.com/...
@_tweedge Chris Partridge on x
I hope a policy postmortem is done on what the “line” was for Cloudflare. The bomb threats seen today from KiwiFarms users are hardly an escalation from the long history of harassment, SWATting, stalking, etc. It's good CF got there. But very, very bad that it took this long. htt…
@gossithedog Kevin Beaumont on x
Me too. I don't think Cloudflare should regulate or review content as a routine task. I do think they need strong policies on what to happen when there's threats to life. https://twitter.com/...
@riskybusiness Patrick Gray on x
A small win but they still enable a bunch of other hate sites. I really hope people keep the pressure on them https://twitter.com/...
@blackamazon @blackamazon on x
Aka after years of abuse and targeting The possible victim was finally important enough to matter So we acquiesced in the worst possible way that redirected abuse vectors off our site and showed we only care about certain victims https://twitter.com/...
@yashar Yashar Ali on x
Huge news! Cloudflare has dropped KiwiFarms, a website where stalkers and real-world harassment campaigns were organized. At least three people died by suicide due to KiwiFarms. I'm so proud of you ⁦@keffals⁩!! https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
@keffals @keffals on x
@eastdakota Thank you for doing the right thing.
@nandoodles Nandini Jammi on x
Finally. @eastdakota proves that he's a free speech absolutist until he can't take the heat anymore. https://twitter.com/...
@justinhendrix Justin Hendrix on x
Cloudflare did the right thing, after exhausting all the wrong options. https://twitter.com/...
@gossithedog Kevin Beaumont on x
Cloudflare spent two weeks on this (per their blog), completely fucked up the response, made every PR gaff imaginable, further endangered human life, and then declared themselves better than everybody. Do better, be better. https://twitter.com/...
@taylorlorenz Taylor Lorenz on x
Cloudflare did not drop Kiwi Farms in response to any one news article. Media ppl should note that @keffals led this campaign, her powerful audience generated #DropKiwifarms coverage on dozens of websites over the past month including Insider, CBS, Vice, Bloomberg, and more.
@tomkrazit Tom Krazit on x
In 20 years of doing this I'm pretty sure I've never read an angrier piece of corporate communication. Blaming the organizers of the pressure campaign for causing Kiwi Farms users to do what they've always done, only to a wider group of people, was a choice. https://twitter.com/.…
@matthewfederman Matthew Federman on x
“We were fine with all the harassment until it came for us.” Such a principled stand. https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@chendo @chendo on x
Finally. But, this was after copious amounts of hand-wringing, a sizeable campaign to drop them, laundry list of publicly visible harms, a blog post defending their “values”... and yet @SwitterSocial got booted with no warning, no evidence of harm, no campaign, and no apology. ht…
@ellievhall Ellie Hall on x
Kiwi Farms owner Josh “Null” Moon has posted a statement on Telegram about Cloudflare's decision to block the site: https://twitter.com/...
@bostonjoan Joan Donovan, PhD on x
Years ago, I wrote about infrastructure, hate and incitement in the tech stack. There's a whole dissertation that needs to be written about this era of internet history and deplatforming: https://www.cigionline.org/... https://twitter.com/...
@tomnamako Tom Namako on x
Kiwi Farms, one of the most dire places on the internet known as an epicenter of vicious, anti-trans harassment campaigns, was dropped Saturday by its security services provider after a @kattenbarge and @oneunderscore__ expose. https://www.nbcnews.com/... via @nbcnews
@erininthemorn Erin Reed on x
Now do @Shopify for platforming Libs of TikTok and funding threats to Childrens Hospitals. https://twitter.com/...
@cityafreaks Lil Orthogonian on x
uhhhhh I would've gotten it done faster https://twitter.com/...
@reinh @reinh on x
Cloudflare is nothing if not consistent. We know what it takes to get them to drop someone and violent, illegal activity isn't it. It's violent, illegal activity _that makes Cloudflare look bad enough_. https://twitter.com/...
@charlesarthur Charles Arthur on x
@ErrataRob “Immediate threat to human life” is quite a big thing, surely. They've already swatted someone in the past week or so - that's potentially deadly. This is not just saying unpleasant things about people on the internet; Prince says it's about much more. Stopping violenc…
@briannawu Brianna Wu on x
Congratulations to @keffals. She won the battle against #kiwifarms we couldn't during Gamergate. I am so thankful for her fighting on behalf of all the people targeted by this hate community. And for the people who have been bullied to death by this human filth. https://twitter.c…
@emilybell Emily Bell on x
this whole episode throws doubt on the tactic of ‘do not amplify’ , when it comes to insidious actors in the worst corners of the Internet https://twitter.com/...
@sarah_alice_x @sarah_alice_x on x
The #DropKiwifarms campaign was a success. No longer shielded from being attacked, the site will be DDoS'd into oblivion. https://twitter.com/...
@goldietaylor @goldietaylor on x
Less than a day after @oneunderscore__ exposed them widely and gave voice to its victims, Cloudflare has taken KiwiFarms offline. This is journalism. https://twitter.com/...
@hunterwalk @hunterwalk on x
@eastdakota applaud your recognition of the challenges here, the attempts for consistency & regulatory frameworks, & the courage to make exceptions when you believe there's a greater harm in inaction https://twitter.com/...
@wexler Nu Wexler on x
On one hand, drawing a line in the sand and crossing it three days later is bad PR. OTOH, if you have to cross the line then Labor Day Saturday is a good time to do it.
@katienotopoulos Katie Notopoulos on x
What makes Cloudflare's role in being the last and only power of moderation of Kiwi Farms so odd/complicated is that Cloudflare is not a company that does “moderation” in the way we think of it (ie social platforms)... https://twitter.com/...
@oneunderscore__ Ben Collins on x
What does KiwiFarms losing their hosting mean for their online gang's future? For one, much of its userbase has predicted this in the last week, and has moved to Telegram. They'll keep going. But their massive archive of doxxes and targets will be a lot less easy to find.
@mike_from_pa @mike_from_pa on x
This only happened because of a major drop in stock valuation due to the #DropKiwifarms campaign. This gutless worm allowed multiple deaths to happen in the face of relentless public pressure but immediately caves because stock drop. Pathetic. https://twitter.com/...
@arawnsley Adam Rawnsley on x
This was always going to happen. The question was whether they dropped them before or after Kiwifarms started notching up a body count. At least someone in the company had the sense to tell leadership it's vastly preferable to be on the “before” side. https://www.nbcnews.com/...
@gossithedog Kevin Beaumont on x
Cloudflare has a yearly problem with allowing customers who practice incel terror. That is not a problem for society to manage. That is a problem for Cloudflare's leadership to manage. It is a Cloudflare policy problem. It is a Cloudflare Terms of Service Problem. Lead.
@carnage4life Dare Obasanjo on x
Cloudflare comes to their senses and blocks Kiwifarms as it's clear they are planning real world harm. There are valid reasons for service providers to want to stay neutral and only act on illegal content but this site was a bad choice to make that stand. https://blog.cloudflare.…
@taylorlorenz Taylor Lorenz on x
@keffals Visitors to any Kiwi Farms sites that use any of Cloudflare's services will now see a Cloudflare block page and a link to this post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
@doctor_cupcakes Liam Robertson on x
Cloudflare could have came out of this looking pretty good had they not stuck their fingers in their ears for weeks, stopping replies on their tweets and tripling down first. They deserve no credit for this. https://twitter.com/...
@aryavdude Aryav Taneja on x
nice. was literally just reading the profile on Kiwi Farms from Techmeme. sad it takes an immense amount of pressure, rather than a moral compass, for @Cloudflare to do something. https://twitter.com/...
@oneunderscore__ Ben Collins on x
I've been covering bad parts of the internet for long time now. For years, there was one site extremist researchers warned me not to cover because publicizing it would be dangerous. But it's time people know KiwiFarms—and how they're chasing political enemies around the world.
@alexstamos Alex Stamos on x
Cloudflare certainly isn't in a position to make post-by-post decisions in the same way as a social media site, and it's reasonable for them to have a high bar before retracting services. But when a forum is completely dedicated to causing harm to individuals, it is time to act.
@oneunderscore__ Ben Collins on x
Here's my story with @kattenbarge on KiwiFarms and how political terror will look going into 2024. They are weaponizing your data to terrorize political dissidents — and they're broadening what they view to be an enemy every day. I hope you read it. https://www.nbcnews.com/...
@slpng_giants_oz @slpng_giants_oz on x
STOP!!! Dont just scroll past the below post - take the time to discover what evil can be perpetrated when haters and their websites go unchecked because... FREE SPEECH. @Cloudflare deserves condemnation for not acting sooner NOT praise for finally taking action. #Auspol https://…
@adamkinzinger Adam Kinzinger on x
Please everyone read this. This will make you rightly angry. This is no different than nazi brown-shirts. This is 21st century terrorism and must be treated as such. Fear not. https://twitter.com/...
@projectlincoln @projectlincoln on x
Kiwi Farms is an evil place where cowardly Ultra MAGAs go to bully and harass patriots. https://twitter.com/...
@b52malmet Barbara Malmet on x
“At least three people have died by suicide after becoming targets of Kiwi Farms harassment campaigns, according to Vice” https://twitter.com/...
@jcameronpeters Cameron Peters on x
One day after @oneunderscore__ and @kattenbarge reported about a potential expansion of Kiwi Farms' tactics and the growing danger the forum poses https://www.nbcnews.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@keahukahuanui Keahu Kahuanui on x
Sites and organized harassment like this are already rampant; being used to terrorize politicians but also regular citizens to a horrifying, demoralizing and debilitating degree. If you're not worried about such data abuse and we don't legally curtail it, it will only get worse. …
@gossithedog @gossithedog on x
Thread on Kiwifarms. Yesterday, Kiwifarms attempted to doxx me, posting an address and phone number for me, and then mocking my cybersecurity degree (I don't have one). I'm not trans. They're coming for you, and currently target @cloudflarehelp's customers who voice concern. http…
@esqueer_ Alejandra Caraballo on x
I spoke out and defended Clara Sorrenti aka keffals, and I was targeted by kiwi farms. They created a thread about me and doxed me. A user threatened to dox my mother if Joshua Moon made my thread public. He made my thread public and my mom was doxed. https://twitter.com/...
@jason_kint Jason Kint on x
Imagine being compared unfavorably to 4chan and 8chan. “Brennan said that, while websites like 4chan and 8chan can pose substantial national security risks, 'what Moon is doing is worse, because he's actually targeting specific people. https://twitter.com/...
@radiobkg Bradley George on x
“After her swatting, Sorrenti fled to a nearby hotel. Within hours, stalkers determined which hotel in her city had matching bed sheets from a photo Sorrenti tweeted of her cat...” https://twitter.com/...
@rothschildmd Mike Rothschild on x
The future of political violence is a bunch of burgeoning serial killers openly conspiring about which of their “enemies” they'll destroy next, enabled by red pill-addled tech bros and influencers looking for cultists to bomb children's hospitals and buy their sweatshirts. https:…

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