Cloudflare is an US-based web infrastructure and security company. Photo: 123RF
The online security firm Cloudflare has blocked the controversial online forum KiwiFarms, following a campaign started by a transgender woman targeted by the site.
Kiwifarms has become notorious for doxxing - releasing an individual's private information with malicious intent - and swatting, where a false tip is made to police in the hope an individual's home will be raided.
The website was also known for republishing the manifesto and livestream of Christchurch mosque shooter Brenton Tarrant, with site owner Joshua Moon refusing to work with New Zealand police. The website was temporarily blocked in New Zealand, following the attack.
Clara Sorrenti, a Canadian trans Twitch streamer known as Keffals, was targeted by KiwiFarms users after speaking out about recent anti-trans legislation in the United States.
A discussion thread about her was started in March, after another streamer who criticized Sorrenti was removed from the Twitch platform, NBC reported.
The thread included sexually explicit photographs of Sorrenti, phone numbers and addresses belonging to her friends and family and the name she used before her transition.
Then on 5 August, Sorrenti opened her front door to find a police officer pointing a gun at her face - the result of a 'swatting', after someone impersonated her in an email and said she was planning a mass shooting.
"It was particularly bad because I'm trans, but literally anyone could make a burner email in your name and attach a photo of a gun and say you're going to go on a mass shooting," Sorrenti told NBC.
"Depending on who the cops are and how you react, you might die as a result of it."
After moving to a hotel which was quickly identified by online trolls, Sorrenti left Canada and fled to Europe.
Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince. Photo: Getty Images/AFP
She started a campaign online urging Cloudflare to drop Kiwifarms as a client. The security firm provides protection against distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, where sites are overloaded with traffic in an attempt to take them offline.
While Cloudflare had previously dropped its services to 8chan, the messageboard where Tarrant posted his manifesto, earlier this week its CEO Matthew Prince resisted calls against Kiwifarms.
However, the company u-turned and today announced it was blocking Kiwifarms as a client.
Our statement on Cloudflare dropping Kiwi Farms. pic.twitter.com/PrjtnfPLuX
— keffals #DropKiwifarms (@keffals) September 3, 2022
Anyone attempting to access the site was met with a message reading, "Due to an imminent and emergency threat to human life, the content of this site is blocked from being accessed through Cloudflare's infrastructure".
In a blog post, Prince wrote that Kiwifarms had "frequently been host to revolting content" and that alone was not enough to take action.
"However, the rhetoric on the Kiwifarms site and specific, targeted threats have escalated over the last 48 hours to the point that we believe there is an unprecedented emergency and immediate threat to human life unlike we have previously seen from Kiwifarms or any other customer before," he wrote.
We just blocked Kiwifarms. The threats on the site escalated enough in the last 48 hours that, in spite of proactively working with law enforcement, it became enough of an imminent emergency we could no longer wait for them to act. Details of our decision: https://t.co/xNnSXn65R6
— Matthew Prince (@eastdakota) September 3, 2022
Prince denied Cloudfare was taking action in response to Sorrenti's pressure campaign.
"We are also not taking this action directly because of the pressure campaign. While we have empathy for its organisers, we are committed as a security provider to protecting our customers even when they run deeply afoul of popular opinion or even our own morals."
