Cloudflare terminates services for 8Chan

[grarpamp]

On 8/5/19, Razer <g2s at riseup.net> wrote:
> Shooters will have to find another place to boast about their little incel
> thingies... https://new.blog.cloudflare.com/terminating-service-for-8chan/

Five supposed commies, nationalists, etc, all under 25,
so hardly yet likely so studied, thus not targeting anything
interesting, like the Gov / Corp that some say are causing
the breakdown of humanity and human to human social fabric,
thus utterly innocent street people die.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_Dayton_shooting
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_El_Paso_shooting
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilroy_Garlic_Festival_shooting
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poway_synagogue_shooting

https://reddit.com/r/news/comments/clylb4/feds_texas_man_planning_mass_shooting_hit_with/
"Federal agents *arrested* 19-year-old William Patrick Williams on
Thursday after his discharge from a hospital... the Lubbock man had
told his grandmother that he... planned to "shoot up" a local hotel,
then force police to kill him. Sensing that her grandson was both
suicidal and homicidal, the woman persuaded him to be hospitalized
instead. [Now his life is being destroyed by the unhelpful State]"

https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/Mass-Shooting-Near-Douglas-Park-Playground-Police-518001731.html

https://reddit.com/r/news/comments/clzxwu/8chan_is_a_megaphone_for_shooters_shut_the_site/

https://twitter.com/CodeMonkeyZ/status/1158259371790364672
"We leave law enforcement to the experts and will not stop service
to any of our clients unless by final court order." - @bitmitigate TOS

https://twitter.com/DarkDotFail

http://oxwugzccvk3dk6tj.onion/

Real News...
Firearm [aka: freedom] grabbing vermin, Censorious Lawmakers,
Surveillance GovCorp now in full swing and coming from all corners,
to do nothing as usual but waste stolen money and further
piss off and enslave humanity.

https://torrentfreak.com/cloudflare-fails-to-exclude-daily-stormer-evidence-from-piracy-trial-180504/
 Cloudflare opened its own can of worms by censoring the first site.


Matthew Prince knows, and gives, fuck zero about real "law".
He's an arbitrary corp sjw $illionaire proven to be
against actual freedom of speech time and again.

Creepy Schizo Quotes from Matthew Prince...

"Rationale... 8chan [is] lawless [by design] and that has *caused*
deaths. Even if 8chan may not have violated the letter of the law in
refusing to moderate [they have no such obligation]... they have
created an environment that revels in violating its spirit [aka:
violating nothing]"

"we made the determination to kick another disgusting site off
Cloudflare's network: the Daily Stormer."

"If our policies are more conservative than theirs it effectively
undercuts their ability to run their services and set their own
policies."

"While removing 8chan from our network *takes heat off of us* [civil
lawsuits], it does *nothing* to address why hateful sites fester
online. It does *nothing* to address why mass shootings occur. It does
*nothing* to address why portions of the population feel so
disenchanted they turn to hate. In taking this action we've *solved
our own problem*, but we *haven't* solved [anything else]."

"the action we take today won’t fix [speech]. It will ... not even
remove 8chan from the Internet."

"a huge portion of the Internet now sits behind our network."

"what we have done to try and solve the Internet’s deeper problem is
engage with law enforcement and civil society organizations...
monitoring"

"We continue to feel incredibly uncomfortable about playing the role
of content arbiter"

"we've been successful as a company, that does not give us the
political legitimacy to make determinations on what content is good
and bad. Nor should it."

"our concern has centered around another much more universal idea: the
Rule of Law. The Rule of Law requires policies be transparent and
consistent. While it has been articulated as a framework for how
governments ensure their legitimacy"

"Conduits, like Cloudflare, are not visible to [uncaptcha'd unblocked]
users [ip's] and therefore cannot be transparent and consistent about
their policies."

"We and other technology companies need to work with policy makers in
order to help them understand the problem and [engage in censorship]"

"LulzSec caused a lot of problems. We made a lot of friends in
intelligence agencies,"

-- CloudFlare Matthew Prince... CorpGov Spy leader of the company that
makes billions and does nothing to actually help such human beings
that it is "monitoring" but rat them out and wreck their lives
instead.



Terminating Service for 8Chan
    Matthew Prince
August 05, 2019 1:44AM

The mass shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio are horrific
tragedies. In the case of the El Paso shooting, the suspected
terrorist gunman appears to have been inspired by the forum website
known as 8chan. Based on evidence we've seen, it appears that he
posted a screed to the site immediately before beginning his
terrifying attack on the El Paso Walmart killing 20 people.

Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident. Nearly the same thing
happened on 8chan before the terror attack in Christchurch, New
Zealand. The El Paso shooter specifically referenced the Christchurch
incident and appears to have been inspired by the largely unmoderated
discussions on 8chan which glorified the previous massacre. In a
separate tragedy, the suspected killer in the Poway, California
synagogue shooting also posted a hate-filled “open letter” on 8chan.
8chan has repeatedly proven itself to be a cesspool of hate.

8chan is among the more than 19 million Internet properties that use
Cloudflare's service. We just sent notice that we are terminating
8chan as a customer effective at midnight tonight Pacific Time. The
rationale is simple: they have proven themselves to be lawless and
that lawlessness has caused multiple tragic deaths. Even if 8chan may
not have violated the letter of the law in refusing to moderate their
hate-filled community, they have created an environment that revels in
violating its spirit.

We do not take this decision lightly. Cloudflare is a network
provider. In pursuit of our goal of helping build a better internet,
we’ve considered it important to provide our security services broadly
to make sure as many users as possible are secure, and thereby making
cyberattacks less attractive — regardless of the content of those
websites.  Many of our customers run platforms of their own on top of
our network. If our policies are more conservative than theirs it
effectively undercuts their ability to run their services and set
their own policies. We reluctantly tolerate content that we find
reprehensible, but we draw the line at platforms that have
demonstrated they directly inspire tragic events and are lawless by
design. 8chan has crossed that line. It will therefore no longer be
allowed to use our services.
What Will Happen Next

Unfortunately, we have seen this situation before and so we have a
good sense of what will play out. Almost exactly two years ago we made
the determination to kick another disgusting site off Cloudflare's
network: the Daily Stormer. That caused a brief interruption in the
site's operations but they quickly came back online using a Cloudflare
competitor. That competitor at the time promoted as a feature the fact
that they didn't respond to legal process. Today, the Daily Stormer is
still available and still disgusting. They have bragged that they have
more readers than ever. They are no longer Cloudflare's problem, but
they remain the Internet's problem.

I have little doubt we'll see the same happen with 8chan. While
removing 8chan from our network takes heat off of us, it does nothing
to address why hateful sites fester online. It does nothing to address
why mass shootings occur. It does nothing to address why portions of
the population feel so disenchanted they turn to hate. In taking this
action we've solved our own problem, but we haven't solved the
Internet's.

In the two years since the Daily Stormer what we have done to try and
solve the Internet’s deeper problem is engage with law enforcement and
civil society organizations to try and find solutions. Among other
things, that resulted in us cooperating around monitoring potential
hate sites on our network and notifying law enforcement when there was
content that contained an indication of potential violence. We will
continue to work within the legal process to share information when we
can to hopefully prevent horrific acts of violence. We believe this is
our responsibility and, given Cloudflare's scale and reach, we are
hopeful we will continue to make progress toward solving the deeper
problem.
Rule of Law

We continue to feel incredibly uncomfortable about playing the role of
content arbiter and do not plan to exercise it often. Some have
wrongly speculated this is due to some conception of the United
States' First Amendment. That is incorrect. First, we are a private
company and not bound by the First Amendment. Second, the vast
majority of our customers, and more than 50% of our revenue, comes
from outside the United States where the First Amendment and similarly
libertarian freedom of speech protections do not apply. The only
relevance of the First Amendment in this case and others is that it
allows us to choose who we do and do not do business with; it does not
obligate us to do business with everyone.

Instead our concern has centered around another much more universal
idea: the Rule of Law. The Rule of Law requires policies be
transparent and consistent. While it has been articulated as a
framework for how governments ensure their legitimacy, we have used it
as a touchstone when we think about our own policies.

We have been successful because we have a very effective technological
solution that provides security, performance, and reliability in an
affordable and easy-to-use way. As a result of that, a huge portion of
the Internet now sits behind our network. 10% of the top million, 17%
of the top 100,000, and 19% of the top 10,000 Internet properties use
us today. 10% of the Fortune 1,000 are paying Cloudflare customers.

Cloudflare is not a government. While we've been successful as a
company, that does not give us the political legitimacy to make
determinations on what content is good and bad. Nor should it.
Questions around content are real societal issues that need
politically legitimate solutions. We will continue to engage with
lawmakers around the world as they set the boundaries of what is
acceptable in their countries through due process of law. And we will
comply with those boundaries when and where they are set.

Europe, for example, has taken a lead in this area. As we've seen
governments there attempt to address hate and terror content online,
there is recognition that different obligations should be placed on
companies that organize and promote content — like Facebook and
YouTube — rather than those that are mere conduits for that content.
Conduits, like Cloudflare, are not visible to users and therefore
cannot be transparent and consistent about their policies.

The unresolved question is how should the law deal with platforms that
ignore or actively thwart the Rule of Law? That's closer to the
situation we have seen with the Daily Stormer and 8chan. They are
lawless platforms. In cases like these, where platforms have been
designed to be lawless and unmoderated, and where the platforms have
demonstrated their ability to cause real harm, the law may need
additional remedies. We and other technology companies need to work
with policy makers in order to help them understand the problem and
define these remedies. And, in some cases, it may mean moving
enforcement mechanisms further down the technical stack.
Our Obligation

Cloudflare's mission is to help build a better Internet. At some level
firing 8chan as a customer is easy. They are uniquely lawless and that
lawlessness has contributed to multiple horrific tragedies. Enough is
enough.

What's hard is defining the policy that we can enforce transparently
and consistently going forward. We, and other technology companies
like us that enable the great parts of the Internet, have an
obligation to help propose solutions to deal with the parts we're not
proud of. That's our obligation and we're committed to it.

Unfortunately the action we take today won’t fix hate online. It will
almost certainly not even remove 8chan from the Internet. But it is
the right thing to do. Hate online is a real issue. Here are some
organizations that have active work to help address it:

    Anti-Defamation League
    Gen Next Foundation
    Perspective API
    7 Cups

Our whole Cloudflare team’s thoughts are with the families grieving in
El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio this evening.