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> That is the equivalent argument in the physical world that the fire department shouldn't respond to fires This is a false equivalence, because fire departmen
by nightpool 4y ago
> That is the equivalent argument in the physical world that the fire department shouldn't respond to fires
This is a false equivalence, because fire departments are public utilities provided and regulated by the state. Cloudflare is a private business. If Cloudflare was democratically elected by its constituents, and it was accountable and answerable to them, then I would agree with them that they have a responsibility to make their services available to all of their constituents, subject to the due process of law.
But they aren't a public utility, and they don't get democratically elected. Cloudflare is a private business, and it exists to capture the surplus value of keeping more websites online and marketing their security products to more corporations. They can do business with whoever they choose to. And they choose to do business with Kiwifarms. Honestly: in effect, Kiwifarms functions as a free success story for Cloudflare's sales folks—"Look at how many people hate this website, and yet they're still online, thanks to Cloudflare!". I think that's probably the reason that Cloudflare's support of Kiwifarms rankles so much with people who are victims of the website—the fact that Kiwifarms is still online is Cloudflare working exactly as intended, but amorally.
> For instance, when a site that opposed LGBTQ+ rights signed up for a paid version of DDoS mitigation service we worked with our Proudflare employee resource group to identify an organization that supported LGBTQ+ rights and donate 100 percent of the fees for our services to them
Okay, you donated the fees, but why continue to accept the money from the site that opposes LGBTQ+ rights in the first place? Cloudflare still got to keep the benefit of increased revenue, and a larger customer base, and the world still got worse. Did the donation they make actually offset the harm done to the world by keeping that site (whatever it is) online? It seems unlikely.
> In addition, I think it's touched on but Cloudflare is huge. Even if they changed their mind on terminating amoral customers, how would that go down? Another automated moderation system that checks for certain keywords?
No, it would go down, ideally, the same way it does today and the same way it did for the Daily Stormer and 8chan. Terminating services for customers like Kiwifarms is a big decision, and it's one that shouldn't be made lightly, and frankly: there just aren't that many harassment websites that are as big and as long-lived as Kiwifarms. I can maybe think of one or two others off the top of my head. I'm okay if Cloudflare decides to terminate one or two of the biggest, most important harassment sites using their platform per year—doing something is better than doing nothing.
- DoctorOW 4y ago> I'm okay if Cloudflare decides to terminate one or two of the biggest, most important harassment sites using their platform per year—doing something is better than doing nothing. I'm sorry, I'd only ever heard of Kiwifarms yesterday. I am also okay with that, but I do genuinely believe there will always be a next one. People forget they made the exact same comments before caving on 8chan and the Daily Stormer. As these incidents get closer together I predict we're reaching that 1-2 site a year rate. If I can backpeddle a little on my parent comment, I far less care about any of these specific websites than the implications of Cloudflare not giving the big "We hate to do this" speech beforehand.