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Kiwifarms Dropped by Their ISP

111 points| rzk | 3 years ago |t.me

238 comments

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[+] josephcsible|3 years ago|reply
This is why arguments justifying censorship by saying "just host it yourself then" are wrong. Whenever you take over one level in the stack, the next level down will just censor you instead.
[+] insanitybit|3 years ago|reply
I didn't see that argument a lot. I'm glad their ISP dropped them. "Censorship" is a bit of a silly word to me at this point. Is it censorship when your email provider removes spam? When your antivirus removes malware? I mean, spam is speech, malware is code and code is speech. So it is censorship. We just all agree it's a good thing.

This is a good thing.

edit: Since this keeps coming up, it's not just spam emails/ malware but also domains/infra hosting those services. If a hosting provider finds out that they are hosting Command and Control infrastructure, or malware, or spam (ie: SES), they will remove that. And no one is up in arms about censorship over it because that would be really stupid.

[+] dragonwriter|3 years ago|reply
> Whenever you take over one level in the stack, the next level down will just censor you instead.

That’s (among the reasons) why you need net neutrality, which covers the lowest level of the stack.

EDIT: It is interesting that it is the same people that oppose net neutrality that tend to support government intervention at all other levels of the stack to assure that their preferred content regulation and only that content regulation is enforced.

[+] tmottabr|3 years ago|reply
Yeah, not really.. the argument still stand..

KF can still have their servers and have the site running on then.. They can also go out and install cables connecting their servers to other people for then to access it if they want.. They are allowed to implement their own parallel stack on the side and have 100% control over it as long as they can afford it..

What is happening is that in order to cut those costs they need to use the existing stack and have other companies grab the content from their servers and deliver to other people screens, but other people do not want KF content in their network in any way.. something entirely in their right..

In the end of the day, if they went all the way up the stack and still cannot find a single other company in the whole world willing to work with them it honestly say more about them then it say about the world..

[+] simplotek|3 years ago|reply
> This is why arguments justifying censorship by saying "just host it yourself then" are wrong.

That was never the argument.

The argument is that private companies have the right to provide their services in their terms, and if your intended use violates those terms then you also have the right to pick a services that tolerates you and your intended use. Aka gay wedding cakes.

[+] threatofrain|3 years ago|reply
One might apply this argument to HN, where mods can silently ban people so that those who are banned don't realize. I mean, are you going to create your own HN? It doesn't matter if creating HN is easier than creating an ISP if the task is practically unsurmountable.

Isn't the issue here freedom of association? When in conflict with freedom of speech, which is more important, and why?

[+] lotsofpulp|3 years ago|reply
Perhaps high quality fiber connections with decent upload capacity should be a utility to every home. And ipv6. Then cutting off connections has to go through courts.
[+] VHRanger|3 years ago|reply
Yes, if absolutely no one wants to associate with you, you'll have to do everything yourself.
[+] sinity|3 years ago|reply
I mean, such a thing happened multiple times at this point. Supporters of this aren't really ashamed of what they do.

I can't wait to support the other side being censored whenever it'll be possible somehow.

[+] kdmsk|3 years ago|reply
Indeed all this ride has been a cold lesson and has thankfully shut down the stupid “host it yourself” argument forever.
[+] d_e_solomon|3 years ago|reply
Kiwifarms has gone way past free speech and onto active harassment. To fly this one as a free speech issue is disingenuous. To act like censorship is the issue here is pretty ripe.
[+] orangepurple|3 years ago|reply
Snapshot of the main page: https://archive.ph/aIUSE

Excerpt from the top:

  Zayo, our ISP, has suddenly discontinued service. This is because Blake Willis, a 20 year senior network engineer in the company's Paris HQ, is friends with Liz Fong-Jones - a former Google employee associated with Trans LifeLine charity directors who were removed for inurement, and recently accused of sexual assault. I have appealed this decision but absolutely nothing will happen until Monday.
[+] dmamills|3 years ago|reply
Yet another chapter in these pathetic cry-bullies' lives. What a waste of your life to be so dedicated to "defending" a forum to meticulously document and mock the existence of people that they find distasteful.

To pretend this is a crusade for free speech is laughable.

[+] soundnote|3 years ago|reply
“The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one’s time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.” ~ H. L. Mencken
[+] mimikatz|3 years ago|reply
It is amazing how fast net neutrality people disappeared when this was the topic
[+] lbruno|3 years ago|reply
i'm enjoying the right-leaning comments here -- it's not censorship, it's being censured

which highlights a point i like to make: if you wish to defend KF, first you have to justify the concrete speech being carried out on it

with examples

which you can't post here because it goes against the rules of this place -- which should be a pretty big hint as to why the fruit site got censured

[+] soundnote|3 years ago|reply
> which highlights a point i like to make: if you wish to defend KF, first you have to justify the concrete speech being carried out on it

> with examples

> which you can't post here because it goes against the rules of this place -- which should be a pretty big hint as to why the fruit site got censured

Shouldn't the logic here be the reverse? If we want to censor Kiwifarms, we should justify it as heinously evil and an active threat to people's lives or something. Many articles claim they are, but at least according to other posters here end up being a case of circular citations with little in the way of actual examples of Kiwifarms content that'd convince people that maybe it's enough of a pile of garbage to toss out of society.

I know it's definitely not a pleasant place - a friend recently dug out some posts from there on what archives he managed to find, and said it was basically a sneer club site. But a sneer club in a small godforsaken corner of the net is pretty far from actively harassing people to suicide.

Made more complicated by keffals, as far as I know, basically being a similar grade of asshole.

[+] FeepingCreature|3 years ago|reply
> which highlights a point i like to make: if you wish to defend KF, first you have to justify the concrete speech being carried out on it

Speech does not require justification any more than any other right does. As a principle, speech is not for something. So I in fact have to neither justify nor endorse KF to consider this wrong.

[+] josephcsible|3 years ago|reply
> which highlights a point i like to make: if you wish to defend KF, first you have to justify the concrete speech being carried out on it

That's not true, though. Remember this? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Socialist_Party_of_Am... David Goldberger, a Jewish lawyer, defended actual Nazis' rights to free speech. Do you think that he thought Nazism was justified?

[+] api|3 years ago|reply
The right supports the right of private businesses to decide who to serve unless they are kicking out right wingers in which case we need government intervention to guarantee a platform.

It’s sort of like how they support federalism except when states do things they don’t like, or small government except for when it comes to their pet issues.

[+] powera|3 years ago|reply
Magical thinking about "the internet eliminates censorship" cannot and must-not override the very real fact that Kiwifarms is awful and no business that is aware of what goes on there wants to associate with them.
[+] ultra_nick|3 years ago|reply
What is Kiwifarms?
[+] anaisbetts|3 years ago|reply
It is a KKK-level hate site against LGBT people and particularly trans women, that actively seeks to terrorize them by doxxing them and their family members. Several suicides have been attributed directly to their actions, as well as the Christchurch massacre.
[+] byyll|3 years ago|reply
Self-described as "community dedicated to discussing eccentric people who voluntarily make fools of themselves."
[+] sascha_sl|3 years ago|reply
A website that bullies, ridicules and publishes private information of people they do not like, and then pretends they're not culpable when awful things (suicides, swattings) happen as a result because they technically really aren't responsible for them. Not that they don't usually celebrate when it happens.

A trans twitch personality was swatted a while ago and fought back by informing everyone involved with keeping the site alive. They have been dropped by about 99% of the ISPs they've been with (including before that campaign, but now also by Cloudflare).

[+] HereIGoAgain|3 years ago|reply
Well here we are.. It's time to come up with the next argument (excuse) because now building your own site and net is clearly not good enough. ISP networks, protected by governments, are censoring the net.
[+] A4ET8a8uTh0|3 years ago|reply
I first heard of kiwifarms in relation to swatting one of the US congressmembers ( which frankly is likely the reason we are seeing this domino falling into place ). I have no sympathy for swatters, but there are laws in place to handle those.

To me it is sad, because the trend is unmistakable. The 90s internet has been dying for a while, but it will just not be there ( or likely partially move to tor-land ) for my kids.

For all those, who are cheering this on. You are effectively stamping your approval on the concept 'forbidden knowledge' and that 'some people need to be silenced for the greater good'. I am not being hyperbolic.

[+] cannabis_sam|3 years ago|reply
KF defenders are always the true “lolcows”!

Have they and/or their nihilistic and sadistic salivation over victims of harassment been made illegal…?

Turns out, no…

Are private businesses choosing not to service their reprehensible needs for irrelevant gossip legal…?

Turns out, yes!!!

You either die a free speech defender or you were always an irrelevant misanthropic shitbag who no one wants to associate with…

Your next step is to start a “free speech” oriented ISP, cause, you know, that is still not actually illegal.

You’ve been talking the talk, time to walk the walk…

[+] DarkByte8|3 years ago|reply
Can someone explain to me how 4chan which is in the news all the time linked to mass shooters, linked to Trump and 2016 election, link to misinformation, etc. is still up but kiwifarms is dropped by every company?
[+] bobsmooth|3 years ago|reply
4chan is ephemeral. Kiwifarms documents and archives. One is clearly more dangerous.
[+] dragonwriter|3 years ago|reply
4chan has had... quite a lot of platforming-related drama, too.
[+] thinkingemote|3 years ago|reply
They allegedly proactively report users to LEO. It's a kind of voluntary honeypot apparently?
[+] IYasha|3 years ago|reply

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