Cloudflare has blocked access to one of its controversial customers, Kiwi Farms, formerly known as CWCki Forums, an internet forum that facilitates discussion and harassment of online figures and communities.
Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince said the company was under pressure to sever ties with Kiwi Farms because of several human rights abuses and harassment allegations that pointed to the latter.
However, Prince explained that Cloudflare’s eventual action was not due to the pressure it faced, but because it realized it was taking law enforcement process too long to take action against the forum.
“We definitely had complaints coming in. But if you were watching even mainstream social media over the weekend, what you saw are some things that were really direct threats, some very specific information about things that were planned. That escalation is what started to worry us. That’s really what prompted us to act over the weekend,” said Alissa Starzak, Cloudflare’s VP, Global Head of Public Policy.
Prince explained that blocking Kiwi Farms was only a temporary solution to stop harassment.
“We recognize that while our blocking Kiwi Farms 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,” Prince wrote in a blog post.
The sources for this piece include an article in Arstechnica.