(no subject)

[olivermoss]

Pressure from lost customers, including our own Dreamwidth, means Cloudflare has suspended Kiwi Farms.

From the sounds of it the people involved in Kiwi Farms are moving to Telegram... a social media app that I keep forgetting exists. Every time I see something about sending someone a telegram I keep thinking they are being silly and mean DM or text. Anyway, while the people are going to continue to be obsessed with harassing and doxxing people, mostly trans people, their organization, visibility and dox directory all took a hit. So, it will be harder for them to do things like "At least three people have died by suicide after becoming targets of Kiwi Farms harassment campaigns, according to Vice. In 2016, the family of a trans person who died by suicide, Lizzy Waite, was harassed by Kiwi Farms trolls for weeks after her death. She had posted a suicide note on Facebook." <- from the linked NBC article. They also do things like effectively DDOS suicide helplines for gay and trans people so those needing actual help can't get through. They call over and over to clog them up. There has been concerns that the Kiwi Farms crowd could become a lot more dangerous with the mainstreaming of targeting trans people due to Libs of Tiktok

Also, for those of you who have see the Countrapoints video on Cringe, Kiwi Farms is a fuzzing of 'Chris Chan Wiki'. They grew out of the Christographers. And if you have no idea what I'm talking about here's a video that gets into the deep roots of some of what's going on here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRBsaJPkt2Q

Comments

[mxcatmoon]

Well, that's good news. We need to keep sending the message that this kind of hate and harassment of innocent people will not be tolerated. They need to crawl back under their rocks before all the progress in human rights we've made over the years is torn apart.

[olivermoss]

Yeah, it's good to have them treated as not welcome on the main web. Can't stamp them out, but letting them exist like any other website gave them a sort of validation.

[mxcatmoon]

Exactly. Same with all manner of hate groups and the radical right. With the current climate and Trump getting into office, they had validation and started acting like they have free rein to do whatever they want right out in the open with no fear of censorship. Of course, the fact that so few consequences seem to come from their illegal behavior doesn't help.

[olivermoss]

People really underestimate how powerful 'seeming cultural acceptance' is. I mean, *gestures at Andrew Tate* His words are out there, but it's been made clear that mainstream culture / companies with authority wont tolerate him and that has an impact. When they are allowed on normal websites and social media a lot of people, esp teen guys, get this impression of 'we all know this is right but we just don't say it in front of parents'.

[mxcatmoon]

Definitely.

[mistressofmuses]

I was and remain delighted at the news that Cloudflare dropped them. I know it won't get rid of Kiwi Farms as an entity, but anything that makes things harder for them is a good thing.

[wolfpurplemoon]

From what I saw, it was the fact that KF started posting bomb threats on their forum that made CF finally drop them, rather than any pressure from other customers or the general campaign against KF

Telegram is the one messaging app (I don't see it as a social media app) that's friendly enough that I was able to get my whole family on there so I use it constantly.

I'm sure KF will go the way of places like 8chan and continue to have hosting on the darknet, which does still mean a reduction in their reach as they will be a lot harder to casually link to and stumble onto.