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Cloudflare Helps Serve Up Hate Online: Report (cnet.com)

An anonymous reader writes: If you've been wondering how hate has proliferated online, especially since the 2016 election, ProPublica has some answers. According to ProPublica, Cloudflare -- a major San Francisco-based internet company -- enables extremist web sites to stay in business by providing them with internet data delivery services. Cloudflare reportedly also keeps to a policy of turning over contact information of anyone who complains to operators of the offending sites, thus exposing the complainants to personal harassment.

8 of 210 comments (clear)

  1. This is not news. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    TCP/IP enables extremist web sites to stay in business by providing them with internet data delivery services

    1. Re:This is not news. by XXongo · · Score: 5, Insightful
      ...and doxing anybody who complains about a hate site.

      don't forget that part.

  2. Re:So they sell to anyone by penandpaper · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So instead you cozy up to anarchist, spawn antifa, and riot?

  3. Re:So, they dox anybody who complains by omnichad · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Otherwise known as forwarding the complaint. They aren't policing content. Calling this "doxxing" is like complaining that Amazon gave your address to UPS.

  4. Re:So they sell to anyone by penandpaper · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You personally may not have... but I know more than a few Bernie fans who were so disillusioned that they voted for Trump in the end.

    During the primaries I honestly could not believe the Clinton supporters and how arrogant they acted. "We don't need you or your vote!" was a common sentiment I saw.

    I participated in both primary parties for Ron Paul (2012) and Bernie Sanders (2016) and while the GOP did do some messed up shit that bit them in the ass to ignore the delegates Ron Paul won during 2012, nothing compared to the #BernieBro resentment from the Clinton camp. It was incredible to me that there was such animosity for a different opinion in the same party. For all the faults of the GOP, they do have a fairly diverse range of ideas the party represent while the Democrats wanted to limit what is an acceptable opinion by shaming those that strayed from the party mantra.

  5. This is Political Pressure by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Correct. This is not news. it is political propaganda.
    These stories, like the "extremism on Youtube" stories, are designed to put pressure on companies to abandon their free speech principals and submit to the will of the media and the political class.

    Let us be frank: The article mentions the "Daily Stormer", but the actual websites which will be banned are almost certain to resemble the Prop or Not list of alleged "Russian Propaganda" sites. A list promoted heavily be the Washington Post and other MSM sites which ultimately included many independent bloggers and even left-wing progressive sites like nakedcapitalism.com.

    The Propornot list was a list of doubters. Sites which would not tow the propaganda line, on war, on the banks, on the economy, on the election. These are the sites which the political class has been scheming to proscribe since the election. I would hope that people can put aside their political preferences in that election long enough to acknowledge that it was a shocking defeat for the Media and the increasingly corrupt political establishment. Regardless of your opinions on him, someone the political class did not want got in, and they are making moves and exerting political pressure -- usually through their lapdogs in the media-- to prevent ANY such repeat occurrence.

    Regardless of whether you'd prefer vote for Trump or Sanders or any other disruptive candidate come 2020, if this censorship drive continues, the MSM will dominate the internet as well, and you'll be stuck with the political equivalents of Hillary and Jeb Bush.

  6. Doxxing? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    How is it a "doxx" to forward complaints about a site to the site owner after telling people that you will forward complains to the site owner? Just look at the CloudFlare abuse report form -

    By submitting this report, you consent to the above information potentially being released by CloudFlare to third parties such as the website owner, the responsible hosting provider, law enforcement, and/or entities like Chilling Effects.

    (emphasis added)

    They're not looking up your information, they're forwarding your feedback about the site to the people who actually control the site. It's your fault if you don't even read the damned page and send your contact info to some site telling the people who run it just how much you hate them.

  7. Re:Link to actual article by Repentinus · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Cloudfare shouldn't be policing their customers. If someone is violating the law and you are the victim, report it to law enforcement or initiate civil proceedings. It is the function of courts to issue permanent injunctions if the law is being violated and Cloudfare will comply with these injunctions; Cloudfare has no duty to act as an arbitrator, nor should it have. Also when it comes to spam, publish a restrictive DMARC policy and sign your outgoing e-mail streams using DKIM. Discard bounces if necessary.