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Tell HN: Sites like Kiwifarms are destroying free speech

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Re: Tell HN: Sites like Kiwifarms are destroying free speech

#42

During the Second World War, the Allies raced to create the atomic bomb to defeat the Nazis and the Axis powers that stood by them. After all, who would be against destroying Nazis? After the war, though, the secret of atomic weapons was known and more and more states became able to create them, leaving the world in danger of annihilation. While I agree with what has been said about the vileness of Kiwifarms, you who…

It's already over, your words fall on deaf ears. If this keeps up, the best option would be to secede from the mainstream as an individual. In fact, I urge all those with a modicum of intelligence to start planning ahead along this direction, since the cancellation of kiwifarms is simply part of a larger emerging tapestry in the west. Stay together, sink together.

Re: Tell HN: Sites like Kiwifarms are destroying free speech

#43
I wish you would just be honest and say you want everything that offends you banned. I feel like the 90’s Christians at least came closer for that. They’d say it’s offensive to my religion/God. There wasn’t word salad and mental gymnastics to explain how censoring every dissenting thought is actually promoting free speech.

Re: Tell HN: Sites like Kiwifarms are destroying free speech

#44

> What's the precedence set by continuing to do business with kiwifarms? Continuing to do business with Kiwifarms is an acknowledgement that individuals are responsible for their own actions, and any illegal activity such as swatting is the fault of the individual. Are Mark Zuckerberg and Meta responsible when people livestream murders or plan terrorist attacks using Facebook? Obviously no. Now I will acknowledge tha…

But the issue here isn't just the actions of individuals - without a community like Kiwifarms to coordinate and plan these attacks then these individuals might not have the motivation or organisation to do them. While I don't think Cloudflare has full responsibility over everyone they do business with, I also think they have a moral imperative to intervene when one of their customers is using their service to coordinate attacks on someone. And remember, that person is being attacked for their perfectly reasonable free speech.

As far as being able to read the posts and piece it together yourself, you can probably find something on the Wayback machine if you want to. Cloudflare's action was about preventing activity on those threads (i.e. planning/instigating further attacks), not to completely censor the contents.

Re: Tell HN: Sites like Kiwifarms are destroying free speech

#45

I wish you would just be honest and say you want everything that offends you banned. I feel like the 90’s Christians at least came closer for that. They’d say it’s offensive to my religion/God. There wasn’t word salad and mental gymnastics to explain how censoring every dissenting thought is actually promoting free speech.

I wanted to comment and say that you cannot just disregard the fear of harassment because there might be those two motives.

But I realised, I myself am afraid of being harassed if I don’t post from a throwaway account.

Maybe that fear is not justified — I never heard of KiwiFarms before Cloudflare booted them. I don’t mind people writing crazy stuff intended to offend.

Harassment is a pretty solid breach of the golden rule.

Re: Tell HN: Sites like Kiwifarms are destroying free speech

#46

I wish you would just be honest and say you want everything that offends you banned. I feel like the 90’s Christians at least came closer for that. They’d say it’s offensive to my religion/God. There wasn’t word salad and mental gymnastics to explain how censoring every dissenting thought is actually promoting free speech.

No post body was provided.

Re: Tell HN: Sites like Kiwifarms are destroying free speech

#47
post #26
post #10

I agree with you. Cloudflare is an independent entity and is within its rights to refuse service for businesses that are unsavory (including kiwifarms due to supporting harassment, propagandists, illegal substances, or whatever it chooses). I am surprised radicalized keyboard warriors on the internet feel better about the situation and their lives when they harass, SWAT, and dox others. I am sorry you've experienced…

Thank you, it really does help. This post was me releasing my frustration. I've censored myself a lot more than usual throughout kiwifarm's deplatforming, for fear when they regroup they may attack those who were critical of them. I worry I'd be near the top of the list because I'm also trans. But I don't want them to win by being silent.

Showing basic restraint and not oversharing online seem to be the recipe for not ending up with a thread on Kiwi Farms, so you're probably fine.

Re: Tell HN: Sites like Kiwifarms are destroying free speech

#48
post #47
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you, it really does help. This post was me releasing my frustration. I've censored myself a lot more than usual throughout kiwifarm's deplatforming, for fear when they regroup they may attack those who were critical of them. I worry I'd be near the top of the list because I'm also trans. But I don't want them to win by being silent.

Showing basic restraint and not oversharing online seem to be the recipe for not ending up with a thread on Kiwi Farms, so you're probably fine.

This is simply untrue.

EG "I am—well, I was—great at opsec. I got doxxed on farms because someone spent 50+ hours trying to nail me down until he ultimately “compare[d] her tweets to weather history to determine her city, and complied a parametric list of all the profs in nyc and went from there."

Re: Tell HN: Sites like Kiwifarms are destroying free speech

#49

I don't understand how people can get away with swatting. That seems like one of the biggest issues with situations like these. Shouldn't swatters get hunted down and thrown in prison?

Yeah all of the problematic stuff I have seen has been already illegal actions. I’m not sure why we aren’t talking about going after the individuals posting this stuff.

Re: Tell HN: Sites like Kiwifarms are destroying free speech

#50
This isn't a new phenomenon. You raise literally anyone's hackles on twitter and you can potentially get swatted and harassed off the internet.

Dong Nguyen was run off the internet for a fun little mobile game that some people on Twitter got frustrated by. Scott Cawthorne was unpersoned when he gave money to the GOP. Lindsay Ellis made a single wrong step and was bullied and harassed by the type of people upset about Kiwifarms now. Hell, there's a fresh 2 minutes hate every day on Twitter that leads to someone completely irrelevant having their life ruined because they didn't like something popular.

This wouldn't be a problem if people removed their identity from the internet and just started doing everything anonymously, but apparently ego is a monetisable commodity now.

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