Internet CDN and security company Cloudflare has admitted they were wrong to deplatform sites like 8chan and The Daily Stormer – a stance revealed in light of the latest drama around a livestreamer.
If you follow internet drama – specifically on Twitter – you probably heard about the latest debacle around trans streamer Clara “Keffals” Sorrenti.
Keffals was arrested by Canadian police after a swatting incident and noted she was locked out of her accounts – as she’s “still a suspect in an investigation” for a crime she claims innocence for.
Following this Keffals fled her native Canada and went into hiding. It’s worth noting previously Keffals publicly wished her opponent(s) got swatted in a now-deleted post.
Internet forum Kiwi Farms documented this and most of Keffals’ existence on the internet as they do with practically every notable person on the web. So now Keffals has been demanding and campaigning that Cloudflare drop Kiwi Farms just like they did the above sites.
Despite a massive push by corporate websites and various hashtags for a few days now, Cloudflare has posted a statement confirming they will not follow in Facebook and Twitter’s footsteps.
Both social media platforms censor things some people may not like – Cloudflare has proclamed they are a service, and as such it’s not within their power to make such choices based on beliefs or opinions.
“We concluded that the power to terminate security services for the sites was not a power Cloudflare should hold,” the company said. “Not because the content of those sites wasn’t abhorrent — it was — but because security services most closely resemble Internet utilities.”
They added, “Just as the telephone company doesn’t terminate your line if you say awful, racist, bigoted things, we have concluded in consultation with politicians, policy makers, and experts that turning off security services because we think what you publish is despicable is the wrong policy.”
Cloudflare noted this decision was made after terminating service to 8chan and The Daily Stormer, they received endless requests to terminate services to other websites based on the same arguments.
“To be clear, just because we did it in a limited set of cases before doesn’t mean we were right when we did. Or that we will ever do it again,” Cloudflare said in the statement.
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