Cloudflare appears to have reversed its decision not to block troll sites (opens in a new tab) using its services by announcing the blocking of the notorious Kiwi Farms forum.
The website, widely known for its harassment of minority social groups, will no longer be able to use any of Cloudflare's services, the CDN provider has confirmed (opens in a new tab).
However, Cloudflare says that the decision is not only extraordinary, but also a potentially dangerous decision that the company is not necessarily comfortable with.
Block troll sites
Blocking Kiwi Farms by Cloudflare does not mean that the forum will remain completely inaccessible, as the site owner can always choose to move the website to another provider, allowing them to come back online.
According to the Washington Post(opens in a new tab), Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince said the change of heart was not based on increased pressure from a launched campaign urging the site to block Kiwi Farms, but more well, "credibly increasing violent threats emanating from the site."
Cloudflare previously provided security services to Kiwi Farms, protecting them against DDoS and other cyberattacks, but was not the site's web host (opens in a new tab).
"As we noted last Wednesday, we do not believe termination of security services is appropriate, even for scandalous content," Prince said in a blog post (opens in a new tab).
“In a law-abiding world, the answer even for illegal content is not to use other illegal means like DDoS attacks to silence it. The policy that we formulated last Wednesday remains our policy. We continue to believe that the best way to consign cyberattacks to the dustbin of history is to give everyone the tools to prevent them.
Prince adds that the police are involved in fixing the problems caused by Kiwi Farms, but believes that the police are not working fast enough to provide a permanent solution to the crackdown on the trolling forum.
Cloudflare believes its move to block Kiwi Farms could further escalate tensions and fears the troll forum will go haywire after the decision.
The company also reiterated that Kiwi Farms can be brought back online using another provider, as has been the case with the Daily Stormer and 8chan websites previously blocked by Cloudflare in the past.