The forum is now inaccessible, as the reputable online security and protection services company is blocking access to consumers.

Cloudflare has announced on its blog that it has blocked the forum Kiwi Farms. This site is a forum with similar subjects to 4chan, and it has been linked to several harassment campaigns, suicides and the 2019 shooting in Christchurch, New Zealand. Most recently, a Canadian Twitch broadcaster Clara “Keffals” Sorrenti, who is politically on the left of the scale, was harassed through activities organised there, causing her to leave the country.

On August 5, she got a visit by the police in Ontario (swatting when they received a false alarm) because they received a false tip that Sorrenti was planning a mass shooting. In response, Sorrenti (who was not planning to do any such thing) moved to a hotel, but they found out where she went because her picture shared on Twitter was matched against photos posted online by hotels. As a result, she flew to Northern Ireland, and within days, 4chan and Kiwi Farms users had figured out where she was and shared a picture of her accommodation with a threatening message.

Meanwhile, Sorrenti has continued to stand up and openly state that she is in a life-threatening situation and has started a campaign to get Cloudflare to get rid of Kiwi Farms (true, they don’t provide the hosting!), hoping that the tech company would take action alongside the authorities. The company made Kiwi Farms unavailable on September 3. Instead of a forum, users are greeted with a “Blocked” message and a link to the previously linked Cloudflare blog post, written by Matthew Prince, the company’s president, who said the move was not because of Sorrenti’s campaign, but due to an “imminent and emerging threat to human life which continues to escalate.”

Prince says it is an exceptional case and wants Cloudflare not to let it be an example for their future actions. In a statement on Twitter, Prince and Sorrenti acknowledged that Kiwi Farms could still choose an alternative security option that could result in a return. “We should celebrate all of our hard work. We did what no one else could. However, this is not the end. If we want to see the end of Kiwi Farms and communities like theirs, we must continue fighting,” wrote Sorrenti, who has also started a GoFundMe to help cover legal and moving costs.

Source: PCGamer