
CloudFlare refuses to block service to pro-ISIS websites (2015) - jccooper
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/anonymous-opisis-cloudflare-refuses-block-service-pro-isis-websites-1495758
======
nocoder
This is nothing but PR and ensuring they have a moral high ground among their
target audience. It does nothing to address the issue and makes people who use
their services feel good about themselves. This is similar to how FB supports
net neutrality in US but pushes their free basics in other countries.
Additionally, this also provides fodder to extremists saying look how all
these people are against us because they are only punishing our views, this
gives the extremists more ammunition in their brain washing of vulnerable
population. A corporation does not stand for anything except it's profits and
will shift its moral position based on what is most helpful to the bottom
line.

~~~
ratsmack
And what you describe is why I believe there are more actors involved in the
decision, possibly customers. The possibility of losing contracts is a good
incentive to remove a small player. The "I was in a bad mood" strikes me as a
cover to protect someone involved in the decision.

------
ratsmack
I would think that this is a good comparison for a case study of whether
Cloudflare should reject someone. Just off the top of my head, ISIS has
murdered thousands of people, where The Daily Stormer has just offended people
with unsavory content.

~~~
ouid
The threat that ISIS represents is not existential. The threat that fascism
represents is.

~~~
topmonk
Sure it is, ISIS wants to kill all infidels. How can that not be considered an
existential threat?

~~~
ouid
because wanting to do something and having the capacity to do something are
different.

~~~
topmonk
Last time I checked, ISIS has killed a lot of people. You do those slain a
disservice by not even acknowledging this.

[https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/03/25/world/map-
isi...](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/03/25/world/map-isis-attacks-
around-the-world.html?_r=0)

~~~
ouid
What the hell? I haven't acknowledged the number of people that ISIS has
killed because it doesn't matter. If the measure of the threat that ISIS poses
is measured in deaths per year, then ISIS does a little less damage per year
than commercial airplane crashes. Airplane crashes are not existential threat,
so clearly, if ISIS is an existential threat, it is not because they are
currently on track to kill everyone.

~~~
topmonk
It was an existential threat to _them_... wasn't it? Your post came off as as
long as the deaths didn't happen _here_ , or wherever it is that you live,
they don't matter. If not, explain how ISIS isn't an existential threat, and
yet the Daily Stormer is? Because the latter's ideology is associated with
that special buzzword, "fascism", is it?

------
buttcake
You know things are going south when you're more afraid of being labeled as
nazi than actually being harmed by one.

~~~
dvfjsdhgfv
This tendency to call everyone a Nazi is a very strange phenomenon in the USA.
I think if Americans really experienced the atrocities of the Nazi, mass death
camps, shootings of civilians, tortures - they would hesitate before they used
this label against someone they don't like or whose views are different than
theirs.

~~~
ratsmack
The same thing can be said about the word "racist". It is so over used that to
me it has lost all meaning. It seems that in every political discussion where
there is a disagreement, it will be interjected at some point.

------
kthejoker2
"My rationale for making this decision was simple: the people behind the Daily
Stormer are assholes and I’d had enough," Prince wrote. "Let me be clear: this
was an arbitrary decision."

Prince wrote that he "woke up this morning in a bad mood and decided to kick
them off the Internet. It was a decision I could make because I’m the CEO of a
major Internet infrastructure company."

\- CloudFlare CEO on why he dropped Daily Stormer as a customer

CloudFlare CEO: “The people behind the Daily Stormer are assholes”

[https://arstechnica.com/?p=1148311](https://arstechnica.com/?p=1148311)

------
itsdrewmiller
Did the purveyors of those websites claim Cloudflare secretly supports ISIS,
as the Daily Stormer's did of Nazism?

------
jhanschoo
I would suppose that at the moment CloudFlare's policy would be defensive; to
refuse service to groups that are clearly defamatory to CF.

To assume censorship on greater moral principles would mean 1. a greater
degree of arbitrariness and unfairness, and 2. a drain of resources on an
unpopular policy.

