Technology

I don't think we should ever celebrate people being deplatformed.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/08/isps-should-not-police-online-speech-no-matter-how-awful-it

If the content is illegal pursue legal means to punish the posters. But to create a layer of censorship on the internet, that is enforced by opinions of companies, is a terrible precedent

But let's say they win, and they get the domain blocked everywhere. They'll just launch a new domain, just like all the pirate streaming sites do.

If a telecommunications provider disconnect someone because of content, they should lose their safe harbor provisions as a telecommunications provider. They should now be responsible for all content on their wires because they're now editorializing

@[email protected] - your bot seems to add undefined at the end of the text.

For a site filled with users who are more tech-savvy than the average person, I'm surprised there is such a big dichotomy in views here. Or maybe it's just one or two really vocal individuals.

I think everyone is agreed that the site is a cesspool that deserves to die. The issue is that getting ISPs to voluntarily block sites based on advocacy is bad. As the provider of a "digital human right", ISPs should NOT get to decide who gets their service and who doesn't.

The EFF isn't supporting hate groups. What they're saying is that an ISP block is a dangerous precedent.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/08/isps-should-not-police-online-speech-no-matter-how-awful-it

This is the best summary I could come up with:

Founded in 2013, Kiwi Farms has been used to organize vicious harassment and stalking campaigns against targets including Clara Sorrenti, a transgender activist known as Keffals, and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.), a far-right Republican.

Over the past year, their little group of internet sleuths, trans engineers and activists has methodically chased Kiwi Farms across servers and networks around the globe, successively persuading more than two dozen companies to drop the site.

Sorrenti, a Twitch streamer who became famous as a news star for trans youth, had been under attack for months by Kiwi Farms users, who she said doxed her address and “swatted” her home, filing a false crime report that drove police to her door.

After earlier attempts to take down the site, he incorporated as his own internet service provider, acquiring his own physical hardware, network resources and a block of IP addresses, making Kiwi Farms much more difficult to dislodge.

The group slowly discovered a network of what they called “sh--hosts” — low-end internet providers who work with disreputable sites that spread malware or offensive content, arguing that they have a right to free speech.

Last week, the Electronic Frontier Foundation published an opinion piece arguing that Tier 1 ISPs should not bow to pressure to drop Kiwi Farms, calling the move “a dangerous step” toward censorship.

The original article contains 1,936 words, the summary contains 221 words. Saved 89%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

It's not the job of isp's to block this.

It's not the job of the road infrastructure companies to block bad (or somehow illegal) drivers.

Kiwi Farms was stalking and enciting hatred towards trans people. They had a body count. I am glad they're offline.

OP this was a really good discussion. I think the comment section below demonstrates why fighting never-ending battles isn't the approach to solve systemic problems. Systemic problems need systemic solutions.

After all this discussion, I went to the site in question to see what all the fuss was about but I found a few things interesting.

The site, the site owner, is a known (with address and everything) US company. So fully under the jurisdiction of US courts.

They have a really interesting internet tier list, telling of all their history with different interconnects, isps, and other internet infrastructure.

I don't want to link to them, given how contentious it is, but their internet history is really fascinating and relevant to this post about 'wack-a-mole' internet services. I've included a link below to a archive.is snapshot of their internet history, which has some trigger words, but is mostly technical